The Girl with a Great Gift
by Pengping
Summary: Babylon 5 is in trouble yet again. People said the Dilgar were extinct. Then Jha'dur showed up on the station. Again people say the race is dead. Then a ship carrying a Dilgar girl in cryosleep is recovered by a Starfury pilot named Harmony Silver, a Dilgar/human hybrid. The truth behind the First Dilgar War is revealed and, thanks to the Dilgar girl, the Second Dilgar War begins.
1. Mixed Blood

Babylon 5's hangar bay that housed their Beta Squad was busy. A squad had just come back from patrol and everyone was unsuiting. They chatted lightly as they changed into their blue and white uniform. With the end of their patrol, their shift was over for the day.

The Starfuries that had just been on patrol were being locked down until their next flight. One of the pilots that had just come back from patrol didn't take her flight suit off. Instead she tucked her helmet under her arm and walked over to one of the techies looking at her Starfury. Her last name, Silver, was on a nametag on her suit.

"Hey," the pilot addressed the techie, "can I take my bird out again?"

The techie looked up from the Padd with the data on it and gave her a bizarre look. "Go back out? Why do you want to do that? You just got back. Harmony Silver, are you trying to get HTS?"

Silver smiled at his comment. She was well used to bantering with the techies here in the bay, for she was always going out on solo flights into Hyperspace. This argument was becoming standard.

"I don't get Hyperspace Travel Syndrome," Silver reminded the techie with an innocent smile. "Being out in Hyperspace with all those distortions just doesn't bother me. I find it soothing."

The techie gave Silver a blank look, and Silver sighed.

"Can I get my ship and go out for a flight or not?" Silver repeated in a more serious tone.

"I need to run a diagnostic," the techie said after staring at her for a few seconds more. "That will take half an hour. Since you want to go out on yet another unscheduled flight into Hyperspace you can use that time to get _permission_ from someone in command."

It was now Silver's turn to give the techie a bizarre look, and she tilted her head to the left as she stared at him. "Really? You never made me do that before."

"And I got in trouble for letting you go out yesterday," the techie said in a scolding voice. "If you want to go, you're getting permission this time so I don't get demoted."

Silver exhaled in something akin to a sigh, and reluctantly surrendered. "All right. I'll be back in half-an-hour."

With that, she turned on her heel and walked to the dressing room to temporarily change into her uniform.

The techie shook his head as she walked away and went back to working on his PADD with a quiet, cross mutter of, "women."

Silver stripped off of her space suit and changed into her blue and white pilot uniform. She yanked her boots over to her, and sat down on a bench to start lacing them up. Although the techie had tried to speak quietly, Silver had still heard him hiss the word 'women' as she left. Women in Earthforce were the minority, and although Silver was well used to comments like that they still had a knack for putting her in a bad mood. For Silver, it was worse than just being a woman in Earthforce because not only was she a woman she wasn't even pure-human.

"Protocol this, protocol that," Silver grumbled under her voice as she finished with one boot and switched to the laces on the other one. "I had no idea there'd be so many blasted protocols when I joined Earthforce."

Once she had finished getting changed, she slapped her communicator on her hand and shoved her identicard into her pants pocket. Since she needed to find a superior officer to clear her flight she should probably go up to Babylon 5's C'n'C, but someone might get mad at her for pestering them on their shift. Maybe she could head to the Zócalo then, and find someone off duty.

The Zócalo sounded like the safer of the two plans, so that was where she headed. By the time she got out of the dressing room the members of her squad were already gone. Silver didn't altogether mind that, and paged for the turbolift. She was the only female in her squad, so there was no one else waiting.

The turbolift came, and Silver entered with orders for the turbolift to take her to "Red 5."

There was a chime of recognition from the turbolift, and it started moving. Silver finally allowed herself to relax and leaned against the railing. Just for this little bit, Silver was able to lower her guard. When she lowered her head, a lock of her thankfully straight auburn-black fell over her eyes. She crossed her eyes to look at the hair, and blew at it. It moved and then fell into the same spot.

Silver sighed, and reached up to manually tuck the bang back with the rest of her long hair that she kept pinned up out of the way. Her fingers traced the cat-like point of her ear as she was doing so, but Silver pretended that she hadn't noticed. There was a chime from the turbolift, and it announced that she had arrived on Red 5 as she was still fixing her hair. The doors opened, and Silver lowered her hand to her side as her guard came back up.

A wave of noise assaulted her as the doors opened and she stepped outside. It took a second for her to adjust to the chaos after the quiet of Hyperspace and relative quiet of the hangar bay. The sound of footsteps, the rustle of clothes, clinking of silverware from the restaurants, shouts form the casinos and quiet conversation between merchants and customers, and dozens of different languages being spoken at once all blurred together.

Once she settled down she stared walking along the Zócalo's central corridor, looking for officers she could ask permission from. Out of instinct she listened to the languages around her to see if there were any she recognized. Of course there was English and other human dialects, Narn, Gaim, Drazi, and then she heard Centauri.

The lattermost surprised her the most. Although Emperor Londo Mollari of the Centauri Republic had not joined the newly formed Interstellar Alliance, she had heard that he was allowing his people back onto Babylon 5. It seemed the stories were true; however, many races were still wary around them and the friction between the Centauri and Narn was almost tangible.

A few of her Narn friends that she had made nodded greetings, and she returned them. She wasn't quite sure how she should act around the Centauri, so she pretended she didn't see them so she didn't accidently start a fight or something. Doing that would ruin her chances of going back out into Hyperspace for a solo flight.

As she walked down the corridor, still looking for an officer, she caught sight of her reflection in a store window. Her amber-gold eyes stared back at her, black pupils slitted slightly like a snake's. Silver's facial features were very beautiful, but feline like, a testament to her heritage like her eyes and her ears. She looked away from the window, and focused on her search for an officer.

After a little more searching she saw someone walking ahead of her in an officer's Earthforce uniform. Although she couldn't tell who it was by looking at their back, it was a woman and that instantly made Silver feel better about approaching them. She quickened her pace to catch up to the officer.

"Excuse me, sir," she addressed the officer politely and raised a hand towards them.

The officer stopped walking, and turned to face her. Silver tensed and her alien eyes widened when she realized she'd stopped none other than Captain Elizabeth Lochley. She had not been expecting her, and instantly came to attention.

"Yes pilot?" Lochley asked and read her nametag, "Silver is it?"

"Yes sir," Silver nodded. The movement made that lock of hair that had fallen in front of her face earlier do so again. "Harmony Silver from Beta Squadron."

Lochley hadn't been here for much more than a year, and there was no way she could know all of the Earthforce personal by name, yet Silver's name she recognized. Silver was acutely aware that Lochley was looking her over now, taking into account Silver's alien eyes, ears, and the non-human cast to her features. It was nothing she wasn't used to by now.

"You're…" Lochley stared to say.

"The hybrid," Silver finished for the Captain, "One of the few Earthforce members who aren't pure human. I'm only a quarter-alien, but the physical features of my alien ancestry are somewhat dominant over my human ones."

"And you're alien ancestry is-" Lochley tried to finish her sentence again.

"Dilgar," Silver interrupted quietly again.

Subconsciously, Silver clenched one of her hands by her side into a fist. With the Dilgar's extinction at the end of their war at 2232, and Jha'dur's death by the Vorlon's hands in 2258, Harmony Silver was likely one of the few people left with Dilgar blood. It was just a quarter, but in her family back when she had been growing up on Earth she had been taught the Dilgar's language before English. She had spoken the Dilgar's language long enough that by the time she had started learning English, the Dilgar's accent had stuck.

Although her family didn't see the Dilgar blood as bad, Silver hated the way she spoke and even the way she held herself as she walked, for anyone who had seen a Dilgar would know she was one of them. To have Dilgar blood, the monstrous race Jha'dur had led that had wiped out so many planets and species just because they could, was not a good thing. It didn't matter what her family said.

"Well Mrs. Silver," Lochley said after a moment of quiet between them. "What can I do for you?"

Silver was glad that Lochley had changed the subject, and she spoke up quickly while she could. "I just got back from a patrol with my squad, and I'm off duty for the rest of the day."

"Go on," Lochley motioned with her voice.

"I want to go out on a solo flight into Hyperspace, but since it's unscheduled I need an officer's permission." Silver explained quickly. "You're the first officer I found."

Lochley looked just as surprised as the techie by Silver's request. "You _want_ to go onto a flight into Hyperspace?"

Silver smiled softly, glad that some things were still predictable, and explained. "Because of my _other_ blood, my eyes are different from a human's. I don't see Hyperspace in the same way a pure-blood human would, and I can't get any symptoms of Hyperspace Travel Syndrome. It's one of the reasons I became a pilot."

Lochley was again surprised by Silver. She had no idea that Dilgar were immune to HTS, but it was suddenly a little easier to understand why the Dilgar had been able to gain such ground in the war. Immunity to HTS in a war that was fought by jumping through Hyperspace was an obvious advantage.

"Do I have your permission to go back out into Hyperspace?" Silver asked after giving Lochley some time to process the new information.

"What exactly is your route?" Lochley asked.

She still a little puzzled that anyone would want to spend more time in Hyperspace despite learning that Silver wasn't affected by it. Like most humans, she simply wasn't capable of understanding things from a Dilgar's perspective.

"I just do laps around the beacon," Silver assured Lochley. "I should only be gone for an hour or two."

Lochley wasn't in the habit of giving into such informal requests, but something about Silver's amber eyes unsettled her. There was something in them that was not human, as if Silver was merely pretending to be human. It made her skin crawl, and suddenly she wanted to dismiss Silver so she gave into her request.

"Very well," Lochley relented. "I'll contact the hangar bays now to tell that you may go if the technical staff there agrees that your fighter is good to go."

"Thank you Captain," Silver replied humbly.

Lochley turned on the comm on her hand and started speaking, so Silver turned on her heel and left to go back to the hangar bay. She knew why Lochley had given into her request. It was because she didn't want to be near her, and allowing her flight was the quickest way to get her to leave.

It was odd really, Silver reflected wryly as she made her way back to the turbolift. Aliens of all sorts were welcome, and treated with neutrality until it was clear if they were friend or foe, but not for mixed bloods. Hybrids like Silver technically didn't belong to the human race because there was something in her eyes that simply wasn't human, and it always offset humans. To them, it was like seeing someone who was an imposter with a human face meant to make you trust them, but alien otherwise.

Being a woman in Earthforce was not easy for a pure-blood human. For a mixed-blood whose alien heritage was the Dilgar, it was far worse. Silver let the thoughts come and go as she paged the turbolift. At least she had gotten permission to go back into Hyperspace.

* * *

 **First thing to say to my readers besides hello is this story's timeline. I have never seen the movies, only the series and this story takes place about a month after the end of the 5th season.**

 **Harmony Silver is not the "girl with the gift" mentioned in the title. That character will be introduced soon. Silver is a quarter Dilgar, and the Dilgar's reputation does complicate things for her. She has been stationed as a pilot at Babylon 5 since it opened in the first season so she is aware of events of the five seasons because she lived them, and she did fight against President Clark during the civil war.**

 **Franklin and Garibaldi are not on the station but they do show up a little. Lyta and G'Kar are just gone. Psi Corp and Bester do exist and they will be showing up later on. Ivanova is not on the station either, but she will also be making some appearances.**

 **I think that's all you need to know. Read and review, for reviews encourage updates.**


	2. A Dilemma

By the time Silver changed back into her pressure suit that was required to be worn during Starfury flights and got back to the hangar where her Starfury was, about half an hour had passed. She approached the same techie as before. This time he was looking at his PADD while he waited for a diagnostic to finish running. When he heard her approaching footsteps, he briefly glanced up at her and then back down with a sigh.

"Yes, you can take your Starfury back out," he sighed without looking up again.

Silver started to smile, but his next comment made it fall.

"You're going to have to wait until the diagnostic is done though," the techie warned and waved a hand to the diagnostic currently running. "Then, if the diagnostic says it's clear, you can take it out."

Silver glanced over at the diagnostic screen herself, and saw that it was almost done. She didn't know what result it would give though. Before she could start to say something, there was a distinctly electrical zap sound and someone's scream as they fell back. Both Silver and the techie jumped and faced the noise.

One of the maintenance technicians who had been working on a nearby panel was now lying sprawled out on the ground, and the panel he was working on was sparking dangerously. It seemed that it hadn't been grounded correctly, and the maintenance worker had paid the price. The techie turned away from Silver with a curse and ran over to kneel by his side.

"Hey, are you okay?" The techie asked and shook the maintenance worker.

Silver heard him groan, so she knew that he was alright. It was odd for a maintenance worker to electrocute himself, so he was likely new. Things were peaceful right now, and since the station was no longer getting blasted to pieces by the Shadows, President Clark's forces, or anything else, there wasn't much extra work. Likely he was still getting used to the differences between Babylon 5's circuity that handled dozens of aliens, and that of a normal Earthforce base that only supported humans.

The diagnostic chimed that it was finished, and Silver looked over at it and then at the distracted techie slyly. She smiled in a very Dilgar-like manner and inched backwards away from the techie. When it was clear that he didn't notice her, she turned and walked swiftly to her Starfury. It wasn't like she was breaking any rules since she had gotten Lochley's permission.

Unnoticed she traversed the catwalk to her Starfury's launch cradle and hopped inside. She secured her helmet and strapped herself in as she started powering up her bird. Its power came online and she began launch protocols, using her access code to open the launch bay doors.

What Silver didn't realize, as she was slammed back by the g-force of her Starfury being shot out of Babylon 5, was that the diagnostic of her Starfury had come back red. She thought it was fine since it had undergone maintenance not long ago and she hadn't been in any battles since, but she was wrong. The diagnostic had detected a malfunctioning part in the engines that had been replaced a few days ago, and it had flagged her Starfury down as not-fit-for-flight until repairs were made.

Silver smiled as her Starfury dropped from the station and she made for the Jumpgate. A brief communication and then the Jump Gate opened, and she was in Hyperspace with only the station's beacon to guide her.

* * *

Many sentients hated Hyperspace flight. They loved the ability Hyperspace gave them to fly from star to star, but they hated actually flying through it. Some people claimed that flying through Hyperspace reminded them of being trapped in a nightmare, although compared to hearing the scream of a Shadow Vessel Silver couldn't agree.

The constantly flickering and shifting patterns of light and false shadow reminded her more of the waves on a beach, and helped her think clearly instead of playing tricks on her brain and her perceptions. She was already in a zero gravity environment so up and down were whatever direction she chose them to be. Why that fact of Hyperspace bothered purebloods so much she didn't know.

Being in Hyperspace helped her relax, and here she was able to drop her guard without worry. Here, no one cared that she was kin to the race that had exterminated so many species and experimented on the members of the League of Non Aligned Worlds. Many people had been glad when the Dilgar race had become extinct, but Silver's survival was contrary to that. Hyperspace didn't care about that though.

She had put her ship on autopilot so it would circle the beacon, and lazily folded her arms over her chest and lowered her head. Silver sighed deeply and watched Hyperspace flow around her. Thoughts about her days at the Academy came back to mind. Since she was such a small and slim-built cadet, everyone had underestimated her until it had come to sparring where her Dilgar instincts and upbringing had changed their minds. Everyone had been surprised when she'd decided to become a pilot instead of soldier.

Her time at the Academy had been interesting, but it was after the Academy when she had been assigned to Babylon 5 that her life had really picked up.

Silver had been disappointed although not surprised when she learned that she was going to be deployed as one of Babylon 5's Starfury pilots when it first came online. Like many people, she had thought that Babylon 5 wasn't going to last a single year, yet it had been through five years and three commanders and was somehow still functional. How that was possible was beyond her.

Her immunity to the troubles of Hyperspace hadn't won many points when compared to her amber eyes and pointed ears. She shook her head at the amusement of it all, and closed her eyes to let her thoughts calm. Silver was not going to let her history spoil a perfectly good Hyperspace jaunt.

In fact, Silver let her thoughts calm so much that she began to nod off. Drifting off while in Hyperspace was not the safest thing to do, but Silver couldn't help herself. The route she had set her ship for was out of the way of Hyperspace lanes so she wouldn't bump into any incoming or outgoing ships, and there were no Shadow Vessels either appearing out of nowhere. She didn't think she was in any danger, and she had been staying up late at night training in the flight simulators to get an advanced pilot's license so she was tired.

Eventually Silver gave up on trying to sleep and turned down the volume on her Starfury's systems as low as it could go so she wouldn't be woken up. She left the communications with Babylon 5 untouched, figuring that if they were contacting her she should wake up and answer it. Then she lowered her head and let herself drift off, glad that it was so easy for her to sleep in Zero-G's.

She should not have turned down the volume on the systems however, for not long after she fell asleep her Starfury began to warn her that the faulty engine part was starting to leak flammable coolant dangerously close the engine reactor. Silver slept on, but her dreams were troubled. In her dreams she was a little girl again on Earth. Back then she had let her long hair hang loose to try and hide her ears and the slight ridging of her forehead.

Alien-human hybrids like Delenn or her and Sheridan's son David were extraordinarily rare and the other human children had targeted her for her difference. One incident during recess in first grade came to mind. She had been sitting in the branches of a tree she had climbed up to relax and watch the other children play. A group of children were playing tag, and one of the players had run underneath her perch and tripped, falling and skinning his knee. His friends hadn't noticed his injury, but she had seen it.

Curious of the injuries and the metallic scent of blood she could detect, she had dropped four meters to the ground and landed silently on the balls of her feet with no trouble. The action wasn't something a human could do, and it startled the boy who had hurt himself.

"It's okay," she had told him, "I don't mean you any harm. Are you okay?"

"Get away from me!" The boy had shouted and waved his hand at her.

She had stopped walking towards him in surprise, and that was when the boy's friends had seen her and come running over. They had assumed she had pushed him, and the boy who had skinned his knee wasn't saying otherwise. It was just like always.

She hadn't understood what they meant and told them that she had seen him fall. They hadn't believed her, and the boy who had skinned his knee grabbed a stone near him and threw it at her. Instinct allowed her to catch the stone an inch from her cheek, and the movement made the pure-blood humans step back.

"Monster," one of the children had said while two of the others helped their friend up.

She had flinched back, confused as to why they were calling her that. Was it just because she had caught the stone and jumped from so high? It wasn't her fault. The Dilgar traits were dominant, and the Dilgar were a warrior race who simply outclassed the humans in physical prowess.

"Monster, monster, alien monster pretending to be human," the children had taunted her as they always did. "Get away from us, Dilgar. You're Jha'Dur's kin. Deathwalker, Deathwalker, get away. We don't want you on our planet. You'll kill us all like your kin, monster."

Harmony Silver hadn't understood why they were saying such things. It wasn't like she'd asked to be born a hybrid. They were pure-bloods, and they lived a life of luxury with no idea what it was like for her. It was just how pure-blood humans were. Whether it was other humans who had different skin color or gender, pure blood humans always felt the need to suppress someone.

"I'm not a monster!" She had shouted at them. "I'm human! Not Dilgar!"

The warning chime of her Starfury tried to get louder, but it couldn't. It was tired of being ignored and about to alert Babylon 5 when they coolant spread to the flame of the engines. Silver was snapped from her dream, somewhat thankfully, as the engine exploded. Her thankfulness was short-lived as the damage to the engine made the controls on her Starfury lockup and fractured the glass canopy of her bird.

"Son of a," Silver swore as she tried to work the controls to stabilize her Starfury.

The panel she was working at exploded suddenly, and the lock on Babylon 5's beacon was lost. Silver wasn't aware of the new dilemma as she tried with the controls that were left to contact Babylon 5.

"Babylon 5, this is Harmony Silver of Beta squad," she messaged, "my Starfury has been damaged, repeat. My Starfury has been damaged."

There was only static, and Harmony stared at her communicator. It appeared the radio had been taken out with the initial explosion.

"Really?" She asked it and then went back to working what controls were left.

It was lucky she was wearing her pressure suit because the cracks on the canopy did not look like they would stop growing.

"Just my luck," Silver muttered and hit one of the consoles to try and bring it back on line.

Hitting it worked more often then you thought, but it didn't do much this time. The damage to the controls affected the other engines, but luckily nothing else exploded. Silver went through her options in her head, trying to determine what parts of her tech were not decimated. She had lost contact with Babylon 5's beacon and her course had been away from the other ships. Because she had let herself dose off she wasn't sure where she had been in regards to the station at the time of the explosion so she couldn't calculate where it or the Jump Gate was.

What should she do next?

The question was taken out of Harmony Silver's hands when she tore the panel of a console off so she could access the wires directly and ended up shortening out her suit's life support system. She jerked back at the sudden, unexpected bolt of electricity. Dilgar were physically superior to humans in most regards, but they did not have as high an immunity to electricity. It shorted out her nervous system and soundly knocked her out, leaving her Starfury to drift through Hyperspace.

* * *

One of the officers on Babylon's C'N'C looked at their console in confusion, and tapped it lightly with their fingers. David Corwin, Elizabeth Lochley's second on command, noticed the action, and addressed the officer.

"Is something wrong with your station?" He asked the human staring at the screen.

"I don't know," they replied honestly. "The Starfury that entered Hyperspace just vanished."

Corwin couldn't help but think back to the Shadow War and asked seriously, "what do you mean by vanished?"

"It's gone," the officer raised her hands from the console as if afraid to touch it. "It's no longer on the beacon."

"Contact the pilot," Corwin ordered.

"Starfury pilot this is Babylon 5, do you read?" There was only silence, and the officer repeated the transmission. "Beta 7, this is Babylon 5, please respond."

Silence.

"Beta 7, respond," the officer said in a louder and sharper voice, perking the interest of some of the other C'N'C officers.

There was only silence.

* * *

 **Silver should have looked at** **the diagnostic, but she didn't think there was anything wrong with her fighter since she hasn't been in any battles. People get in their car every day without doing a full diagnostic on it first, assuming that since they haven't gotten into a crash and they're caught up on maintenance that everything will work fine. This is similar.**

 **Yes, children can be cruel, but I'm sure many of my readers out there know how children can be, whether from firsthand experience or simply watching it. By everyone picking on one person, that one person is alienated, but the rest of the children now have a common "foe" and become closer for it. Human/Alien hybrids really aren't that common in the Babylon 5 universe, and Harmony is Dilgar which is not the most well-like of the races.**


	3. IDF Dark Starr

Harmony Silver's Starfury drifted through Hyperspace with Silver still inside. She was unconscious, and floated within the restraints. Babylon 5 had started to scramble the rest of Beta squadron to search for her using the "lifeline" method that had been used to successfully find the Explorer class ship _EAS Cortez_ several years ago.

Silver wasn't aware of what was happening at the station as she slowly regained consciousness after accidently electrocuting herself. She should have known better than to try and alter a panel while the Starfury's main power was still online, and she was in her bulky suit. Fool on her, she thought as she blurrily blinked open her eyes.

The first thing she noticed was that she was cold, and she was shivering. There was no chronometer on the ship so it was hard to tell how long she had been unconscious. She shook her head and looked through the cracked glass canopy of her Starfury, realizing that the cracks had gotten larger. Silver bit her lip and checked her pressure suit to see how badly it had been damaged.

As she had suspected the damaged life support system that had knocked her out, and it could no longer properly regulate her body's temperature. Her oxygen was nearly depleted, and the reserves in the Starfury had mostly leaked out. Although Starfury's had reserve oxygen tanks, they didn't have actually life support systems since the pilot was in a pressure suit. Silver supposed it was better that it have slowly depleted then for it to blow up since that was why she and her Starfury were still in one piece.

Judging by the damage done, the total amount of oxygen she had, and how much she had already used before the explosion she estimated she had about 20 minutes' worth of oxygen left. That number was very low, and compared to how much oxygen it had had before it meant that she had been unconscious for 10-12 hours. The number was surprisingly high, but Silver remembered that she had been tired. She tried her communicator in vain and then looked through the damaged canopy into Hyperspace. Someone out there was enjoying themselves far too much at her expense.

Silver sighed, but she wasn't sure what she could do in her current predicament. She couldn't get the power back to her Starfury and she couldn't hail anyone. If she had a greater supply of oxygen then she might be content to wait for Babylon 5 for a while, but she didn't. What was her next move?

She looked back through the canopy and gave a jolt of surprise. There was a ship. Although her vision was still blurry, Silver would swear there was a starship there where there hadn't been a second ago.

Silver blinked a few times and shook her head, expecting the ship to vanish. Instead, it got clearer and Silver leaned back against her restraints as the ship cleared enough for her to recognize which species it belonged to. The ship was small, probably a personal star liner, and it was elegantly made with tapered sides and edges sharp as a blade. It was colored a dark golden color and had black painted on it in swirling designs. There was a flash from pink weaponry mounted underneath the ship's hawk-like wings.

"No way," Silver breathed as she looked at the starship in recognition. "That's a Dilgar ship."

Silver instantly assumed it was a mirage brought on by her low oxygen reserves, but realized it might not be. If it were a warship then yes, it would have to be a mirage. All of the Dilgar's warships had been accounted for in their defeat and corralled in their home system just before its sun had gone nova. This was a personal starship, and while every warship had been accounted for, there was no way to tally personal non-combat ships. It _could_ have slipped beneath the radar unnoticed near the end of the Dilgar war. It was possible.

The other thing that concurred with it being more than a mirage was the fact that like her, the Dilgar liner was drifting. It looked like its engines had suffered damage by weapon's fire, although she was too far away to see what species of ship had damaged it. A wild guess would be an Earth Alliance destroyer. Since the only contact with Dilgar since their sun went nova was Jha'Dur showing up on a Minbari transport, why she was on a Minbari ship still confused Silver, this was likely a ship leftover from the Dilgar War. Considering how long ago the war was and the degree of damage to its engines, she doubted anyone was alive on it.

Silver smiled suddenly and started working at the controls again to see if she could move her Starfury in closer. There might be no one left alive on the ship, but maybe they had been nice enough to leave a life support system and oxygen tanks. Being in a ship larger than her Starfury would increase the chances of her being found. A Dilgar ship would be even better suited to getting someone's attention considering that it _was_ a _Dilgar_ ship. It did look like the hull was secure as there were no obvious breaches. That was more than could be said for her Starfury.

She had a plan, but her plan soon went astray when she realized she couldn't get power restored to her Starfury. There was no way for her to get closer to the Dilgar ship… not _in_ her Starfury anyway. Silver shook that thought away. Leaving her Starfury and going into open Hyperspace was a worse idea then falling asleep on flight and not looking at the diagnostic before she took her bird out.

Although, Silver mused as she chewed a lip thoughtfully, her Starfury seemed to be caught in the same current the Dilgar ship was. Since her eyes weren't fooled by the distortions of Hyperspace she could clearly see the zig-zagged path both ships were stuck on. There was a chance the life support systems of the Dilgar ship were destroyed or that there was no oxygen for her there, but it wasn't like she had any alternative. After all, she had less than 20 minutes of oxygen left.

"I'm insane," Silver muttered and unclipped the restraints across her chest.

Free-floating without the restraints didn't bother her as much as it could have had she been a pureblood and she knelt to look at the canopy. She couldn't use the ejection system since all that would do was propel the cockpit. Even if it went in the direction of the Dilgar ship, she'd just crash into it. Silver had to leave her Starfury to get to the Dilgar ship, take the risk that she could manage to free-float through Hyperspace, and that it had life support systems.

Silver continued muttering about how insane she obviously was as she manually disengaged the canopy's lock. She entered her Starfury by her canopy being opened, so she knew it was possible to open it. The explosion had disfigured the locks, but after several tense minutes, she managed to open it.

With a sigh of relief that one problem was gone and a gulp at the next problem that had appeared, she crouched down on the floor of her Starfury. Bunching her muscles strengthened by Dilgar blood, she pushed out of her Starfury and into open Hyperspace. She drifted through Hyperspace in the same current as the Dilgar ship, but because of the extra velocity she had from her push, she was able to gain on the ship.

Relief seeped into her bones as she held out her hands at the approaching ship. The next problem soon became grabbing the ship, but after sliding across its smooth surface, Silver managed to secure a grip on some of the debris by the engines. She was glad that the engines were offline as she looked over her shoulder to her Starfury.

Her pounce from it had knocked it out of this current and into another one that was rapidly taking it away. Seeing the tattered remains of her Starfury head away filled Silver with sadness. Somehow, she had managed to survive the insanity of the past five years at Babylon 5 without destroying her Starfury, so that was the same bird she'd been flying ever since she'd been deployed here. With a sigh that it she couldn't help it, she climbed across the hull to the airlock.

If it had been any other species' ship Silver might have had trouble overriding the airlock, but her grandmother, the one who had raised her, had made sure she knew about Dilgar technology. She counted it as a small mercy as she successfully rerouted auxiliary power and got the outer door of the airlock open. Silver entered and managed to force it to close behind her.

Once the outer door of the airlock sealed she was able to open the inner one and step aboard the Dilgar ship. Her pressure suit warned her of low oxygen supply, and Silver was amazed that it was working enough to tell her that. The suit said she had ten minutes of breathable air left and counting, so Silver didn't have much time to find more supplies. Instantly, she was surprised to find that despite this ship supposedly being an abandoned wreck it had artificial gravity.

Her sight blurred unexpectedly and the hallway spun from low oxygen, throwing Silver's equilibrium off and making her stagger to her knees. The hall reoriented itself, and Silver stood as quickly as she could. From where she was, she was close to the bridge, so that was the direction she took. As she walked, she kept her eyes open for emergency supplies.

This was one of the smaller personal starships, and she walked by four closed-off rooms that lined either side of the hallway. Directly past them was the bridge, and the door was thankfully open. Her walk had cut two minutes out of her oxygen supply, and Silver sat in the pilot's chair quickly began to work to get something online.

She jerked her hands from the panel with a meep-like sound of surprise when the lights began to come on for both the pilot and co-pilot stations. Silver looked at the rest of the panels on the bridge as they all lit up.

"Huh?" She whispered and looked at the panels. "I didn't do that. There's no way I could have gotten power online so quickly."

One of the panels in front of her switched to life support systems and Silver watched as the oxygen level aboard the ship increased to tolerable levels and the temperature warmed to 30° Celsius, or 86° degrees Fahrenheit. She looked at her suit to see what it read, but it was now saying that her surroundings were livable.

"So the hull wasn't damaged at all," Silver whispered, "no breaches."

The air was 80% Nitrogen, 20% oxygen exactly. It was well within tolerance for a human. Silver chewed her lip and checked her air supply. Now she had a little less than five minutes of breathable air left. Well, Silver thought to herself, her choices had been sufficiently narrowed down for her.

The ship must have been pre-programmed so that auxiliary power would turn on life support as soon as someone tried to interact with the consoles. Silver got a bad feeling about the ship, but she pushed it aside and checked the readings on her suit and the consoles one more time to make sure they both agreed the air was breathable. They still said it was, so Silver sighed and twisted the helmet of her pressure suit.

Air hissed as the seal was broken and Silver took the helmet off. Slowly, she inhaled and then exhaled. She didn't collapse to the floor gagging for breath so it seemed to be all right. Silver was all right. It was only then that she allowed herself to relax and dropped her helmet to the ground.

Silver laughed suddenly and leaned back in the pilot's chair. It was unbelievable some of the situations she got herself into. Sheesh, this adventure was crazy enough that it might make ISN. Eventually, Silver managed to get her giggles under control and took a closer look at the panels with a smile.

According to the readings, this personal ship was named _Dark Starr_. It was registered with the abbreviation " _IDF_ ," which Silver knew translated to Imperial Dilgar Flyer. Warships and other military vessels would be _IDW_ , Imperial Dilgar Warbird, so the _F_ confirmed this was a civilian craft.

The feeling began to return to her fingers from the warm atmosphere and she realized it was just as she thought. This ship had been set up to turn on life support as soon as it was interacted with. Silver narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the odd setup.

That meant that this ship's systems were shut down and it was set adrift on purpose. This ship was abandoned on purpose, but left with the programming to turn back on once someone came aboard. Obviously, the Dilgar had intended to come back and recover the ship later.

Why would the Dilgar purposely abandon a ship, and then plan on going through all the trouble of searching through Hyperspace for it later? The ship's systems confirmed that despite the damage the hull was secure, and amazingly enough the engines were still functioning.

"The damage was artificial," Silver realized and leaned back from the panel as if afraid it would bite. "This ship was purposely damaged to make it looked like it was a wreck when it is really still fully-functional."

Someone had put a lot of care into making the ship looked like a ruin not worthy of anyone's attention. Effort had also been put into the programming and the shutdown. This ship had been made to look like it wasn't a threat, and then set adrift in Hyperspace out of anyone's reach. The Dilgar had gone to great lengths to hide this ship, so it was obviously important.

It had also been made to be retrieved at a later date. Silver's first guess was that the Dilgar had realized that they were losing the war to the humans, and so had put something on this ship. Whatever it was was important enough that the Dilgar had set it adrift in Hyperspace to parts unknown so the Earth Alliance wouldn't get ahold of it. Likely, they had planned to retrieve the ship and this cargo later when the war swung back in their favor, but it never did. With the Dilgar's extinction, any knowledge of the _Dark Starr_ had been lost and it had been left to drift.

"Now," Silver mused to herself and crossed her arms over her chest. "What on this ship is so important that the Dilgar would go to such lengths to keep it hidden?"

Silver didn't know, but it would take time to get the communications operational. Even once she got an SOS broadcasting, Babylon 5 likely wouldn't detect it immediately. She supposed that once she set up a message she would have some time to explore.

* * *

 ** _Disclaimer:_** **never attempt to actually leave your Starfury when you're in Hyperspace, especially if you are not part-Dilgar and are unable to see the distortions and currents.**

 **I have no idea if you can even do that, but pressure suits are made for such circumstances so why not.**


	4. The Secret of the Dark Starr

Despite the extensive external damage, a quick scan showed that _Dark Starr_ was as operational and as airtight as any well-maintained starship. Silver had no reason to be worried about depressurization, so she squirmed out of her pressure suit. The pre-set temperature of _Dark Starr_ 's life support system was too hot for her to wear a pressure suit meant to keep a pilot warm against the absolute zero of space, and it was damaged as well so she had no regrets in taking it off. Although humans like temperatures less than 80° F, Dilgar preferred it between 80° and 90°, further proof of the ship's preprogramming.

Without the bulky suit, Silver now had control over her fingers again and felt comfortable looking at the damage on her pressure suit without the fear of accidently electrocuting herself again. Like all pilots, Silver was wearing a form-fitting one-piece jumpsuit under the pressure suit, so it wasn't as if she was naked. She even had a pair of booties on that fit within the gravity boots of the pressure suit.

Just as Silver suspected, her suit was trashed. There was no way she could repair the damage to its systems so she didn't bother wasting her time trying. It had been easy to reactivate the _Dark_ Starr's communication array and then set it to scan through human frequencies to find Babylon 5 or a Starfury. She looped a simple SOS signal and her ID through the communicator, and then set the nav computer to search for any Jumpgate beacon or other ship's nav computer. This gave her four ways of finding her way back to civilization.

Since there was nothing she could do until Babylon 5, a Starfury, a Jumpgate beacon, or another ship was located Silver abandoned her pressure suit and left the bridge. This ship had been purposely scarred to look like it was a wreck not worth anyone's attention, and then set adrift in Hyperspace by the Dilgar so the Earth Alliance would not capture it. There had to be something very important on this ship to make them go to such trouble, and Silver wanted to find out what.

With main and auxiliary power restored, and without the pressure suit, Silver had no trouble walking from the bridge. She started her search at the aft of the ship where the engines were, and checked to make sure they really were functional while she was there. Despite the intense damage and appearance, they were indeed operational. This ship even had a Jump drive to open a Jump gate on its own, rare for such a small ship.

Nothing struck her as particularly odd as she began to walk back to the bridge. The ship's cargo bay was mostly empty with a few crates of rations, basic medical supplies, tools and extra parts, and sheets of metal to mend hull breaches with. Where was this ship's secret that the Dilgar had wanted to protect?

 _Dark Starr_ was a small ship, so Silver found herself back in the hall that led to the bridge before long. She checked the mess hall to the right first. One door led to a dining hall with a table able to sit six people, chairs, and a kitchen next to it. The full kitchenette that took up half of the area, and Silver was surprised again to see it on such a small ship. She remembered the food crates in storage and poked her head into the only bathroom she had found. Nothing out of the ordinary there either, so she left to check the quarters.

The crew quarters in the room closer to the bridge were simple with bunk beds set into the wall, a sink with a mirror in the wall, a table with two chairs, several shelves, and a closet split in half. Like with most ships, _Dark Starr_ functioned better with a co-pilot, but it was small enough that a single person could manage it. There was nothing in the barren quarters besides the furniture, and a search left Silver empty-handed.

That meant that the last room to search was the passenger quarters. There had to be something in there worth hiding. Silver didn't believe for a second that it was a file in the computer. There were infinitely easier ways to hide digital information then to do as they had with _Dark Starr_ , so whatever was on his ship was a solid object instead of bytes in cyberspace.

Either she had missed it, or it was in the passenger quarters. She tapped on the door control to the room, and it beeped at her. Silver hesitated and gave the control an odd look. When she repeated her attempt to enter it beeped at her again and did not open.

"Locked," Silver hummed. "Well, that's not the least bit suspicious."

She knelt closer to the panel and ran her fingers around the edge of it. For maintenance purposes, it was possible for her to remove the panel and expose the circuitry behind it. Once she had access to the wires, it was simple for her to override it. There was a trick with Dilgar tech, and luckily for her she knew Dilgar tech.

The door beeped at her again, but the beep slurred and fizzled out. There was a click noise and the door slid open. Silver smiled and stood, glad that her near-death experience hadn't made her lose her touch.

She peered around the open doorframe, still sitting down, and was so surprised by what she saw she lost her balance and collapsed flat on the floor with an oof. Silver sat back up quickly and dusted her jumpsuit off, really glad no one had been around to see that. There was no mistaking what she saw inside the quarters though. Rigged up in self-sustaining technology was a cryonic freezer unit, and it was active.

Silver stood and warily approached it as if expecting it to pounce at her. It was stupid, but she approached that way anyway. The cryotube was old technology, old enough to be from before the Dilgar's destruction. The glass window was frozen over and Silver stood over it before slowly reaching out with her sleeve and running her arm across it.

Had Silver been holding something, she would have dropped it when she saw who was inside. Instead, she turned to the monitors and checked the vitals quickly, but the inhabitant of the cryotube was alive and perfectly stable.

"No way," Silver whispered.

She looked back at the person in cryonic suspension. It was a Dilgar, pureblood likely, but it wasn't a Warmaster of the Dilgar's army or Jha'Dur herself. Sleeping inside the cryotube was a Dilgar girl, maybe ten years old by human time.

"A girl," Silver whispered. "The point behind disguising this ship is a girl? Why would they go through all this trouble just to hide one girl?"

The next question became who was she, but Silver didn't know. Perhaps it was time to search the ship's data banks for information, assuming she was able to get access to the main computer. Silver shook her head in surprise, not expecting to see another pureblood Dilgar with Jha'Dur dead.

Her throat tickled suddenly, causing her to cough. It was a deep, harsh cough that came from deep in her diaphragm. Silver clapped a hand over her mouth as the coughs racked her system, and leaned against the cryotube with her free hand. There was a metallic taste in her mouth, and Silver froze. Very slowly, she lowered her hand from her lips and saw that there was blood splattered onto the palm just like there was in her mouth.

"Blood," Silver whispered. "I'm coughing up blood."

Was it because of oxygen loss? No, that didn't make any sense. Silver curled her fingers to her bloody palm and suddenly ran from the room with the Dilgar girl to the bridge. Desperately she tapped on the panels to access the computer. Jha'Dur and the rest of the Dilgar often used bio-weapons against their enemies. Whose ship was this?

Silver had an access code from her pureblood Dilgar grandmother, and it was enough for her to open the mainframe and start scrolling through it. She froze on the ship's ID number. The last two digits of the series of number and letters were 'XX.'

"Oh shit," Silver whispered and leaned back in the chair. "Guess I shouldn't have taken off my helmet after all."

XX was used for ships registered to any of the many bio-weapon laboratories. Silver would admit that the Dilgar were clever. The oxygen in the life support system was tainted with a bio-weapon, probably one of Jha'Dur's from how fast it had begun affecting her. Any Dilgar would know the ship's air was infected with a virus, but unwelcome boarding parties would not. This way, if anyone besides the Dilgar tried to board the ship chances were that they would be killed by the virus.

Silver hadn't had a choice but to foolishly trust this ship's life support because of how low her oxygen had been, but it still was a costly error. She had fallen right into it.

"Give me a break," Silver growled. "I survive getting onto this ship, not an easy thing to do, and now I'm going to be killed by some defensive virus?"

As if fate was agreeing with her question she coughed again, and hacked up a mouthful of blood onto the sleeve of her jumpsuit when she covered her mouth with an arm. She didn't doubt that the girl in the cryotube had the same polluted air in the lifesupport system, and the girl had simply taken an antidote. That way, there was no way an unwelcome guest would survive because there was no clean air on the ship. Harmony Silver had survived Hyperspace without a Starfury and found the secret of _Dark Starr_ , but she wasn't going to live to tell the tale.

The beacon she had set up would likely catch someone's attention at some point, so the Dilgar girl would finally be brought out of cyrosleep. Silver didn't think it would happen quickly enough to save her though, and she was starting to feel light-headed and hot despite being comfortable before. Her vision blurred a little and she felt herself start to fall over off the chair.

Silver forced herself to stay in the seat and altered her message that she was broadcasting, adding a few words: _ship infected quarantine_. This way anyone who found the ship would be warned of her mistake. It might scare away a civilian craft from rescuing her, but at least they wouldn't become infected with Jha'Dur's leftover surprise. At least Silver assumed this was Jha'Dur's handiwork, but it might not be.

It would be a bad idea to forcibly bring the Dilgar girl out of a deep, long cryosleep herself, so Silver decided to leave her alone. She should be woken at a medical facility. Now at last, someone stood a chance of finding _Dark Starr_.

"Come on Babylon," Silver whispered. "You better find _Dark Starr_ , or that girl's going to be the only thing alive."

She coughed again, and blood dribbled down her lower lip and dripped onto her jumpsuit. Silver wiped the blood away from her lips with the back of a hand, and then looked at the smear darkly. Babylon had better make it soon.

* * *

 **At last, we meet the girl in the title, but exactly what gift does this girl have and why did the Dilgar go through so much trouble to hide her? Perhaps if Babylon finds Dark Starr before the virus kills Silver, she'll get some answers, and so will you readers.**


	5. Night Shadow Virus

"What's going on?" Commander Elizabeth Lochley asked as she walked onto C'N'C. "I heard you found our missing pilot."

"One of our Starfury's picked up her distress beacon," Corwin agreed warily, not making eye contact, "but…"

"But," Lochley repeated when Corwin didn't finish his sentence.

Before becoming Lochley's second in command, David Corwin had been a rather shy individual described as being caught between "fight and flight." Since taking Susan Ivanova's old position, he had started to lose his shyness, and sometimes even acted as Ivanova had. There were plenty of times however where his old shyness overtook him again.

"Lieutenant Silver isn't in her Starfury," Corwin said slowly, unsure exactly how to explain the situation.

"What?" Lochley asked firmly, narrowing her eyebrows together.

Corwin shrugged helplessly. "As I said, she's not in her Starfury. Rather, she's… well, she's on a Dilgar ship."

" _What_?" Lochley repeated loudly in a tone both startled and firm.

"Apparently it's a civilian craft leftover from the Dilgar war," Corwin explained while looking firmly at his boots. "The pilots escorting the ship back said that it looked badly damaged, so it's likely a wreck."

Lochley raised her eyebrows in surprise, mouth open slightly, and looked out through the observation dome in C'N'C as if expecting to see a Dilgar warbird.

Corwin continued talking without looking up. "There's no sign of her Starfury, but we have confirmed one human lifesign on the ship. It's faint though."

"Why is it faint?" Lochley asked, not liking the dubious tone in Corwin's voice.

"Well," Corwin said softly, "there's a situation."

"Of course there is," Lochley sighed. "What is it this time?"

There was always a situation here at Babylon 5, and Lochley had learned by now that if Silver was involved it tended to get insane.

"The Dilgar ship Silver is aboard is infected with some sort of virus," Corwin finally looked at Lochley directly. "Silver set up an automated message through the Dilgar ship's communicator. She warned in it to quarantine the ship."

"How could she know that?" Lochley asked, "Unless."

"She must have been infected by it," Corwin agreed, "and she's warning us to take precautions. That's likely why her lifesign is so faint. The Dilgar created many bio-weapons, and we don't know which one Silver has become infected with. Although the communicator seems to be functional, she isn't responding to the Starfury pilots."

Which implied Silver was unconscious from the effects of the virus. Enough time had passed that she had likely been running low on oxygen reserves, and refilled with the ship's life support systems. The normally wise precaution had backfired this time.

"We need to get the passenger ships to clear a path, and have both security and medlab ready," Lochley started to order.

"Already taken care of," Corwin said unexpectedly. "Dr. Hobbs and Chief Allan have already been informed of the situation."

Corwin had often tested Lochley's patience, so she was surprised that he had the situation perfectly under control. She nodded that that was the right thing to do when he looked at her shyly to make sure he had been correct. If the report on what things had been like during Jha'Dur's reappearance was accurate, then once this Dilgar ship came out of Hyperspace all hell was going to break lose yet again.

Lochley's guess turned out to be accurate when less than half an hour later the jumpgate opened and Zeta squadron emerged escorting a ship. It was a golden Dilgar ship with black stripes as been said, and it looked like it had been through a battle. With the rest of the Starfury's working to keep the civilian traffic parted, a medical ship with Dr. Lilian Hobbs and some of her staff docked with it. Because of the threat of the virus, the ship was not allowed within Babylon 5.

Other Starfury's hovered around the Dilgar ship with their unconscious comrade, ready for the firestorm that soon broke. Ships were demanding what a Dilgar ship of all things was doing here, and why they were not allowed to dock. Once they found out about the virus then things were going to get heated. All Lochley could do was sit and wait for a report.

Her report would be coming soon enough and Lilian Hobbs in an environmental suit approached the bridge of the Dilgar ship. Harmony Silver was slumped in the captain's chair, clipped into place with restraints. There was a clear red tint to her face from a fever, and sweat slicked her brows. The visible side effects seemed rather common, but the veins in her face and neck were starting to turn red and become prominent.

Hobbs quickly used a scanner to get a better image on how Silver was doing. It didn't look good. Her heartbeat and respiration were all too slow to be normal, but her blood pressure was unusually high. She took a sample of her patient's blood, and quickly ran it and the side effects through the database to try to figure out which of the Dilgar's bioweapons Silver was infected with. Hopefully it was one that they had developed a cure for.

"Dr. Hobbs!" One of the medical attendants with her called out and ran into the bridge.

Hobbs looked up from her scanner as it ran through the recorded database. "Yes, what is it?"

"There, there, there," the nurse tried to say several times.

"There what?" Hobbs interrupted when they couldn't get past the first word.

"There's a Dilgar on the ship!" The nurse admitted and stepped back.

Hobbs eyes widened. "What? A Dilgar?"

The nurse nodded and pointed to one of the rooms next to the bridge. Hobbs quickly walked past the nurse and into the room, abruptly stopping in the doorway. Just like the nurse had said there was a cryotube in the room full of wires and generators, and when she approached the glass screen she saw a Dilgar child sound asleep inside.

"What is this?" Hobbs asked slowly, carefully pronouncing each word.

She looked up at the nurse who had called her attention, but they could only shrug helplessly. What was going on here? Her scanner beeped, alerting her that a match had been found. Hobbs reluctantly tore her eyes away from the Dilgar child and looked at the result.

"A match," she said and then choked her answer when she saw the name of the virus Silver was infected with. "This is…"

* * *

Lochley glanced over as Corwin flagged her down. "Yes Corwin?"

"We just got word from Hobb's team," Corwin murmured reluctantly. "They found a match to the virus Lieutenant Silver has."

"Excellent," Lochley nodded. "How long will it take to develop the cure?"

"Um…" Corwin looked down. "Actually… It's the Night Shadow virus."

Silence fell on C'N'C at those words, and most everyone present turned towards Corwin. Aware of the attention, Corwin tightened his grip on the railing he stood next to and kept his eyes firmly downward.

"Did you just say the Night Shadow virus?" Lochley asked softly, "Jha'Dur's most successful bioweapon?"

The Night Shadow Virus was one of the horror stories about the Dilgar war that was still in effect to this day. It had purged entire solar systems of life, and since Jha'Dur hadn't created an antidote for it those solar systems were off limits to this day. Since the virus had never been cured it remained possible that if someone went there they could become infected and start it all over again.

Originally, it had been a low-danger water-borne virus until Jha'Dur had created an airborne strain. Then it had become as contagious as the common cold, only instead of recovering from it in 48 hours you died in 48 hours. Dilgar were supposed to be immune so there was no need for an antidote.

"Silver is part Dilgar," Lochley realized. "How can she be infected with Night Shadow with Dilgar blood?"

Corwin shrugged, helpless. He was no doctor.

"We can't bring that ship aboard the station," Lochley shook her head, "not with Night Shadow involved."

"Hobbs agrees," Corwin nodded. "She also says that there is no way to bring Lieutenant Silver aboard for treatment either without contaminating the station."

"Without treatment she'll die for certain," Lochley said dangerously.

Corwin took a breath. "Yes, she will."

* * *

Hobbs had laid Silver on the floor, and was running a scanner over her body to see that her vital signs had gotten even further out of control. Her mind was whirling to try and find a way to handle the situation. If she didn't do something then Silver would die, and this ship would have to be destroyed to purge any remaining trace of the Night Shadow.

"The child," Hobbs whispered suddenly and sat up.

She waved her hand, and attracted one of the nurses.

"The Dilgar child," Hobbs repeated. "Is this virus _in_ the life-support of the child's cryotube?"

"Um," the nurse hesitated, "yes."

Hobbs looked through the faceplate of her pressure suit intently, and then stood and walked away from Silver. The nurse gave her a blank look, and then followed her to the room with the Dilgar girl. Once there, Hobbs shooed the Babylon personnel away from the cryotube and started tapping on the buttons.

"What are you doing?" The nurse asked.

"Opening the cryotube," Hobbs said bluntly.

"What?" The nurse repeated and stared at her. "Why?"

"The Night Shadow virus has mutated so it can infect Dilgar," Hobbs explained rapidly. "Jha'Dur is no fool. I doubt she was unaware the virus could mutate like this. This girl must have some sort of vaccine against it. It might be enough to help Silver, and using it as a basis I could develop a full cure for it."

There was a hiss as the lights inside the cryotube went out, and the lid slid open. Hobbs grabbed the blood sampler from one of her nurses, and took a sample from the child's neck, a young girl Hobbs could now see. Red slowly filled the vial, and then she removed it from the girl's neck.

"You don't have the equipment here to do something like that," the nurse told Hobbs sharply. "We won't be allowed on the station either."

"We don't have to be," Hobbs smiled and looked at the readings on the blood.

She nodded after a moment, and then reactivated the cryotube. Reactivating and deactivating it back to back like this was dangerous for the child, but not fatal. Hobbs knew she would be alright, and knew that if she didn't hurry Silver wouldn't be.

The nurse stepped back as Hobbs walked back to Silver. "What are you doing?"

"Gambling," Hobbs said and knelt by Silver. "One thing I've learned stationed here is that sometimes it's worth it."

The nurse cringed and raised a hand as Hobbs injected the dose of the Dilgar girl's blood into Silver's neck, directly into her bloodstream.

"Are you crazy?" The nurse demanded. "You could kill her!"

"Unlikely," Hobbs promised. "Silver is the only human/alien hybrid stationed at Babylon 5, and the only one on the station with Dilgar blood. I have memorized most of her medical file. Both her and the girl have E type blood, so a transfusion is safe. Silver is already infected anyway. If I'm right about the girl having a vaccine, this might be able to help her. It can't make things any worse."

No sooner had Hobbs spoken her last word then did the ship suddenly explode. Hobbs was thrown away from her patient to the ground as sparks flew and the ship sheared sideways under the force of the explosion. Dark Starr might look like forgotten ruins on the outside, but it was strong, and there was no hull breach.

Hobbs lay on the floor for a moment as the breath returned to her lungs and her sight cleared. She sat up again with a wince and looked around. The panels on the bridge were lit up red, and there were more red lights present on the black glass panels.

There was a whining noise, and Hobbs looked out the open glass windows of the bridge to see a Starfury fly past. She jumped when it opened fire, and from her angle, she saw the shots almost skim a Drazi ship that was facing them. Had they been attacked?

...

Captain Lochley stood at in front of the observation window as the ship that had just fired was hailed and responded.

"What the hell are you doing?" Lochley asked the Drazi captain, for it was a Drazi ship, without giving him a chance to speak.

"That ship is infected with the Night Shadow virus," the Drazi captain said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Lochley stared and looked at Corwin in amazement. How did he know that? How was it people were always finding out things like that?

"I have people onboard," Lochley warned the Drazi, "and the situation is under control. We are taking full precautions to stop this virus. We won't let it spread to the station."

"Says you," the Drazi agreed, "but the virus might say otherwise. You humans do not understand what that virus does. This virus is Drazi, and did not kill before Jha'Dur altered it so it would kill us. We have better idea to eliminate virus threat. Eliminate the source."

* * *

 **Night Shadow is a virus that is not quite as extinct as people think, for more reasons then _Dark Starr_. **

**I know there was some misspellings, but Silver is part of Zeta squadron, not Beta squadron. I went back and fixed that. If you see her being referred to as a Beta squad member again, please contact me and i will fix it.**


	6. A Normal Day on B5

Lochley stared at the computer screen where the Drazi captain had been a moment ago before he had cut the connection. She stared at the black monitor and then turned towards Corwin.

"Can you get him back?" She asked.

"I'm trying," Corwin promised, "but he's ignoring us."

Lochley looked down at her console and then out the observation window. She needed to put a stop to this at once, and looked over his shoulder at Corwin.

"He's still approaching and has not stood down, but I might have an idea." Corwin informed Lochley, adding the latter part of his statement with his old cautious skittishness.

"What is it?" Lochley asked.

"Something Commander Ivanova did a few times in situations like this," Corwin said slowly. "We activate the defense grid."

"The defense grid?" Lochley repeated, raising her eyebrows in surprise.

Corwin hesitated at her surprise and then nodded assertively after a moment. "She's had to activate it against the Drazi before. It should make him stand down long enough to bring the ship in."

Lochley looked out the observation dome, unsure.

Corwin pushed his point for once instead of falling silent. "If everyone keeps shooting, our pilots will shoot back. Someone will be hurt, or killed."

Lochley thought about it, admitting that Corwin had a point. Another shot came from the Drazi ship and this time skimmed the wing of a Starfury. That made up Lochley's mind for her. She nodded at Corwin, and he hailed Beta leader.

"Beta leader, this is C'N'C," Corwin raised the Starfury leader.

"Beta leader here," the pilot responded.

"Escort the Dilgar ship inside," Corwin put as much force behind the order as he could.

The pilot hesitated only a second before confirming the order and passing it along to the rest of Beta squad and the doctors on the ship. Jake Hart, the leader of Beta squad, had been stationed on Babylon 5 since it had first gone online. Serving first under Sinclair and then under Sheridan, he had acclimated to following orders that made no sense. This was ironically normal.

"Where is this ship going?" Hart asked.

Corwin stumbled silent out of habit, thinking rapidly, but recovered. "Bay 13. I'll contact the docks now."

"Understood," Hart said and cut communication.

"Bay 13?" Lochley asked as Corwin switched frequencies.

Corwin, to his credit, ignored her and hailed Eduardo Delvientos.

"This is C'N'C," Corwin said once he got Delvientos. "Is Bay 13 still empty? Yes, good. We have a Dilgar ship coming in. Put it in Bay 13, and pretend it's Kosh's ship. I'll be sending down extra security and medical teams. Yes, I said Dilgar. It will be escorted in by Beta squad. No, I don't have time to explain. There will be an explanation later. Just do it!"

Corwin huffed and closed the frequency with a grumble. Lochley raised an eyebrow at Corwin's sudden backbone, and then looked back at her console as the defense grid came online. As he had predicted, the Drazi ship hesitated, allowing Beta squad to hook up towing cables and begin moving the Dilgar ship. After a moment, the Drazi captain hailed Lochley.

"Yes, how may I help you?" Lochley asked him with false ignorance.

"What are you doing?" The Drazi shouted over the communicator.

"Defending my crew," Lochley told him strongly, working with Corwin's decision since it seemed to be working. "You are shooting at one of my pilots and medical personnel. Now stand down. We know the dangers of the virus and we won't let it spread."

The Drazi was nearly bouncing in his seat from fury as he shut off communication.

"Status," Lochley asked Corwin when the screen turned off.

Corwin didn't respond, so Lochley repeated her question in a louder voice. "Status?"

"Hold on," Corwin told her, listening to his headset as he looked at his station. "They're standing down and moving out of range. The Dilgar ship is starting docking procedure."

"Keep the defense grid online until the ship's inside and then deactivate it." Lochley told Corwin.

Corwin nodded an affirmative. He lowered his hand from his headset but he didn't look up.

"Commander Corwin," Lochley asked as she became curious. "What do you mean by pretend it's Kosh's ship?"

Corwin glanced up at her and gave a wry smile. "Kosh was our first Vorlon ambassador. His ship was placed in Bay 13. The bay later had to be set to full auto."

"Why?" Lochley asked, confused.

"There were… strange goings on around the ship," Corwin said hesitantly, unsure how else to word it. "None of the dock workers would enter it."

"Don't tell me the ship was haunted," Lochley scoffed.

"No Captain," Corwin agreed. "It was alive."

Lochley was about to ask Corwin if he was joking - a living ship? - until she saw that he was dead serious. She was still learning that there were simply things on B5 that didn't fit into a report. This appeared to be one of them.

"The Dilgar ship is inside," Corwin related. "Deactivating defense grid. Extra security and medical personnel are en route. I've alerted them of the virus and they'll instigating quarantine measures. Bay 13 will be set to automated once the ship is docked and the workers will leave."

Now Lochley was extra impressed with Corwin. Thinking of Bay 13 was good. The crew there already knew how to set it to full-auto because of Kosh's ship. Lochley knew this was just starting though. Lieutenant Silver was still infected with the Night Shadow virus, and there was going to be hell to pay at the next council meeting.

Luckily for Lochley, Sheridan had just returned to the station. He would have to deal with the council. Lochley didn't envy him one bit.

"Captain!" Corwin interrupted. "Dr. Hobbs says she's stabilized Lieutenant Silver."

"What?" Lochley asked, eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

The incubation of the Night Shadow virus was barely half an hour, amazingly fast – a true masterpiece of Jha'dur's. Once someone was infected with the Night Shadow virus and side effects emerged, they began to deteriorate. They slipped into a coma in less than three hours, and stayed that way for two days until they finally died, a fever raising their temperature to the point where their blood boiled. Now Hobbs was saying she had stabilized Silver? Such a thing had never happened before.

"What?" Corwin asked as Hobbs kept speaking. "Did you just say-no, I heard you. At least I think I did."

"How did she stabilize Silver?" Lochley interrupted, stunned by Corwin's words.

"Dr. Hobbs says she used the other Dilgar's blood," Corwin said slowly. "She must have had a vaccine in her blood. It's countering the effects temporarily. Dr. Hobbs thinks she might be able to use it to create an antivirus."

A cure for the Night Shadow virus? That news stunned Lochley, but what was really like a slap to the face was the rest of what Corwin had repeated.

"What other Dilgar?" She asked seriously.

"T-there's another Dilgar on the ship that was just brought in," Corwin stuttered, slipping back into his habit out of shock. "Another Dilgar besides Silver. It's a girl, a young one. She's in cryosleep on the ship, but she's alive."

"Another Dilgar," Lochley repeated.

Her thoughts flashed back to the incident when Warmaster Jha'dur "Deathwalker" had appeared on Babylon 5 – still alive. Now there was another Dilgar here. She wondered briefly how dead of a race the Dilgar really were before turning her attention back to the Dilgar ship outside as the defense grid deactivated.

"Secure Bay 13," Lochley ordered Corwin, turning the details over to him, "and keep this under wraps. I don't want word of that other Dilgar spreading."

Lochley already knew it was a mostly useless effort. This station's grapevine was legendary, and it wouldn't matter what she ordered. The others here would find out about this Dilgar child. She turned on her commlink, contacting Sheridan.

"This is Sheridan," Sheridan responded. "Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

"We have a situation with Silver," Lochley told him.

"The Drazi," Sheridan agreed.

"Yes," Lochley agreed. "I thought you should know that there's more going on here then the Night Shadow. There's another Dilgar on the ship Silver's in, a pureblood."

"Another-?" Sheridan asked. "I see. Well, I suppose the council will want to hold a session. Thanks for the warning. I presume you'll try to keep this confidential."

"Yes, but this station…" Lochley sighed.

"I know," Sheridan promised with a smile. "I know."

Lochley turned off her link and returned to her station. There was plenty to take care of here, so both Lochley and Corwin were kept busy. Once the ship docked and a route secured, Silver was transferred to medbay and placed in Medbay 1's isolab. Hobbs continued to work on stabilizing Silver and began working on stabilizing the vaccine in the other Dilgar's bloodstream to see if she could finally fashion a cure to the Night Shadow virus.

Calls for explanations were made several times, and every time Lochley told them the basics. One of their pilots had been lost, and recovered. She was aboard the Dilgar ship. Other questions she passed onto Sheridan, taking a certain pleasure in tormenting him. After all, she still owed Sheridan for overruling her authority by allowing Byron's telepaths to stay on Babylon 5 against her wishes.

She could do except wait, answer questions, and try to keep the station from being torn apart. It was nothing new.

* * *

 **A little short, but things will get better from this point. Everyone's back on the station with most of the original cast introduced and some of the new characters. With everyone in the same place the plot will now evolve.**


	7. The Menace of Psi Corps

The Dilgar girl's cryotube had been moved to Medlab 1 with Harmony Silver, but she had not yet been awoken. Hobbs had managed to stabilize Silver, an amazing feat in itself. Sheridan was in session with the Interstellar Alliance council, and Lochley working with the day-to-day hassle of running a station, a hassle made worse by recent events. Mostly everyone was holding their breath, waiting for whatever would come next.

One of the people not holding their breath in worry was a human male in his early twenties. He was currently walking along the stalls in the Zócalo, humming a Centauri opera under his breath with a wicker basket half-full of cooking ingredients on his arm. His brown eyes flickered between the food options as he hunted for the last few ingredients he needed to bake a cream-filled Boston cream pie. The cake, since it was a cake despite its name, was one of Harmony's favorites, and he planned to have one waiting for her when she woke up. Earth ingredients were hard to come by, so he had to substitute alien foods, and he had yet to find any sort of eggs.

He successfully found something to find the rest of the ingredients he needed for the chocolate icing, putting a bar of dark chocolate in his basket and handing over his identicard to pay for it. His name, Leon Wolff, appeared on the stall vendor's screen as his card was swiped and his DNA confirmed. The payment went through, leaving Wolff only the eggs.

The hum of activity and buzz of thoughts of the people in the packed Zócalo were an audible hum. They were understandably distressed from the arrival of a Dilgar ship, and Wolff rubbed his right temple was starting to throb. A headache was forming as headaches often did. This was the disadvantage of being so sensitive to the thoughts of others while having such poor training in blocking thoughts.

With a sigh, Wolff left the stand and continued walking to try to find the eggs he needed. Wolff walked as casually as he was dressed. He wore black pants, and a black zip-up sweater that was only half zipped up to expose the sky blue t-shirt underneath it. A pair of grey and blue tennis shoes was on his feet, and his short brown hair was messily done, a few long bangs falling over his eyes. There was a Psi Corps badge pinned to the left side of his sweater near his heart.

Hostility brushed against his thoughts as he walked, and it was with practiced ease that Wolff isolated the hostile thought from the buzz of everyone's minds. Ah, someone was gloating about how easy it was to steal identicards. He had a skilled partner distracting people as _he_ stole the money, a neat setup that the telepath was familiar with.

In the mood for some action, Wolff drifted towards the source of the thoughts. He was able to use his eyes and experience in this technique instead of his telepathy to identify the criminals – a pair of humans, lurkers from Downbelow if he had to guess. Wolff smiled and set his basket on one of the stalls, he knew the owner of this stall and that it would be safe it there for a few minutes unattended, and approached the human with the stolen identicards. Experience made it easy for him to make it look like an accident when he bumped into the human.

"Ah, sorry," Wolff apologized to him with a smile.

He had slipped his hand into the thief's pocket, and now flicked his hand, knocking all of the stolen identicards and credits onto the floor. They fell with a clatter. Wolff looked down at the identicards and raised an eyebrow curiously. The human froze, breath caught in panic when he realized he was caught.

"Wow," Wolff chuckled as he looked at the identicards. "Are all those yours? You have a lot of names."

He raised his head to the thief, expression both amused and serious. The thief hesitated, and then tried to punch Wolff. Honestly, Wolff thought he would have just run. This way was more fun though.

Wolff sidestepped his haphazard punch, instantly falling into a Centauri fighting stance as he had been taught to do. He responded to the human's punch with a palm strike to the left side of his lower jaw, making him stumble backwards and almost fall. When the human continued to fight, Wolff slapped his punch away and delivered a jump kick to his chest. That sent him toppling to the ground.

Even before Wolff's feet touched the ground after his kick, he sensed that the thief's companion was attempting to flee. His feet touched the ground and Wolff whipped around to face the fleeing thief.

"Pain," he hissed as he sent a mindflare – placing a feeling of pure pain into his target's mind.

The human stumbled and crashed to the ground, hands over his head as he trembled in pain with a gasp. Wolff stopped his telepathic attack as he approached the second thief. When the attack ended and the second thief sat up, Wolff punched him soundly. The thief collapsed, unconscious.

Wolff held his stance for a second, but when he confirmed they were unconscious, stepped back, and relaxed his fist. Heavy footsteps approached as one of Babylon 5's security personnel came running over, her rose red hair streaming behind her. She slid to a stop, a hand on her PPG. When she saw that Wolff had the situation under control she removed her hand from her weapon and fixed Wolff with a hard look. Her long hair, tied back in a ponytail, settled around her shoulders. Her face looked deceptively young and cherub, but her impatient grey eyes revealed her true personality.

"You again Wolff?" She asked the telepath with a hard glare.

"Sergeant Pierce," Wolff greeted Zack Allen's new second-in-command with a respectful tip of his head.

Cassidy Pierce shook her head. "What was it this time?"

"Petty theft," Wolff told her and scuffed a foot across the floor, sending a few of the Identicards sliding her way.

Pierce's eyebrows shot up when she saw how many Identicards were on the ground. "I see."

"If you'll excuse me," Wolff told her as she looked between the criminals. "I still have some shopping to do."

"I'll need a statement from you later," Pierce reminded him.

"I've learned the drill by now," Wolff assured the flint-eyed security officer. "I'll stop by security soon."

"Good," Pierce told him and grabbed the thief Wolff had knocked out by his scruff, dragging him to his feet.

Two more security guards had come, and Pierce passed one thief to them as she used her hand link to call in Wolff's catch. Wolff retrieved his basket of groceries with a nod at the stall owner, who returned it a bit hesitantly. He flexed his fingers as he continued walking in his search for eggs. His hand didn't hurt from the punch luckily, thanks to the slight padding over the knuckles of his black leather gloves.

He spent several minutes walking around and continuing to look, and gradually became aware that someone was following him. Just like before, he pushed most of the thoughts past the walls of his mental block and focused only on the mindprint of the person that had been following him. Wolff couldn't help but roll his eyes when he recognized the mindprint and the identity of his pursuer.

Subtly, he looked in a mirror and saw his stalker in the mirror's surface. Using the reflected line of sight, he was able to speak telepathically to him. Most weren't skilled enough to manage conversation using an indirect line of sight like a mirror, but Wolff had taught himself many things about his psi rating.

 _*_ Verdi _*_ Wolff projected telepathically in a singsong voice. _*Why don't you stop sulking and come say hello?*_

He heard his target groan telepathically in response, and Wolff smiled, dropping the mindcast. Wolff stopped in front of a fruit stall run by a Drazi, and a black-haired Centauri approached and fixed him with a hard look. Wolff smiled at the Centauri innocently.

"Am I ever going to be able to sneak up on you?" The Centauri demanded.

"Probably not," Wolff greeted his friend and moved on from the stand.

Verdi Ellas followed him with a huff. He was dressed like most Centauri men with his hair in a hair crest, although he wore it shorter than other members of his house. His clothing was also plain for a member of one of the Centauri Republic's Great Houses. He wore a white linen shirt, emerald green waistcoat with gold threading, and a fluffy white cravet. Despite having a high rank, he did not wear all the clothing a Centauri noble would normally wear. It was for the same reason Wolff didn't wear the former clothing other Psi Corps members preferred. The extra layers were uncomfortable.

"Still looking for ingredients?" Verdi asked with a nod at his basket.

He walked lightly and quietly, displaying a certain grace and confidence other Centauri lacked.

"Yes," Wolff sighed. "I need eggs to make the cake for Harmony."

Verdi tightened his lips in disdain at the mention of Harmony Silver. Wolff felt his friend's irritation and shook his head at Verdi.

"Harm's a friend of mine," Wolff scolded him. "You should treat her a little better."

"Half of the time she – a woman – spends off-duty she's in Hyperspace," Verdi explained. "The other half, she's in the Narn sector with Ta'Lon and the rest of those barbarians."

"She gets along with the Narn," Wolff shrugged, "just like I get along with you Centauri. The Dilgar were a warrior race just as the Narn are. Harm's able to act herself around them in a way she can't around humans. Besides, _I_ personally have no feud with the Narn."

Verdi snorted, looking at Narn's just as most of the Centauri did. Wolff knew better then to push the point with his friend.

"So," Wolff said, switching the subject. "Did you track me down just to terrorize me about Harm?"

"No," Verdi said slowly. "I want you to, well, I want you to stand Ka-Tow to me."

He spoke rapidly when he said the last part of the sentence, and Wolff stopped walking. Wolff raised an eyebrow at him, and Verdi continued.

"Ever since Gyor died when the Raiders attacked his ship, everyone's been vying to take his place as the Sho-rin of Babylon 5," Verdi explained. "I have a real chance of being Gyor's successor. I've beaten almost every Mutari fighter on the station. All I need to do is win a few more matches and I'll be the Sho-rin. Will you be Ka-Tow to me during my next Mutai-Do?"

Wolff sighed deeply. "Don't you already have Tano to stand Ka-Tow for you?"

"A Mutari traditionally has two Ka-Tow," Verdi told him. "You've stood Ka-Tow for half my matches with Tano. Will you stand with me again?"

"Are you worried about your next match?" Wolff asked, surprised that a Mutari fighter as strong as Verdi was worried.

Verdi looked down, color rising to his cheeks. "Trisa will be there."

"Ah," Wolff smiled.

Now he understood. Trisa Maree, the twin sister to Tano, was a Centauri. Verdi and Trisa were currently in a relationship, making Tano an unofficial brother to Verdi. Unfortunately, the Maree house was a Lesser House and the Ellas house a Great House. Although the Maree's would love to arrange a marriage with a Great House, Verdi's family had already turned down his request for a marriage to be arranged.

Both Tano and Wolff had advised the lovebirds not to elope and marry against the wishes of House Ellas. If they did, Verdi could be removed from the Ellas House. A House was everything to the Centauri, and to become Houseless was a terrible fate. Houseless Centauri were considered contemptible with no support in any form from their family or other Centauri. So far, Verdi had agreed to wait and continue to speak to his parents about a marriage. He had thrown himself into the Mutari far more than he ever had before, impressing the Mutai-Do.

"Why do you want me there?" Wolff asked cautiously, aware that the Mutari was the only thing distracting Verdi from his tumult relations with his House.

"The next Mutari match is in four days," Verdi filled him in. "My opponent is Shukar, a Drazi. You know how the Drazi are. In some ways they're even less trustworthy then the Narn and he's worried about fighting me. He may try to sabotage me."

Wolff stopped walking, and fixed Verdi with a glare as hard as stone, words flat when he spoke. "You want me there because I'm a telepath."

Verdi cringed inwardly. Wolff was taking this the wrong way just as he feared he would.

"No," Verdi corrected. "I want you there because you're my friend. If the Drazi are going to try to fix the match, you will warn me. I trust you, Leon."

Coming from a Centauri, that was high praise indeed. It didn't do much to cool Wolff's temper though. Wolff had been a telepath since he was six years old, but had been picked up by Psi Corps only two years ago. Instead of living a normal life as he had been doing he had given just three options: go to prison, take sleepers, or join Psi Corps. After growing up with his telepathy, he couldn't bear to take the sleepers and had no wish to go to prison, so he had no choice but to join Psi Corps. His relations with Psi Corps were similar to Verdi's with his house, and he hated his connection to them.

"Leon," Verdi repeated. "My choice of words was… ill-advised."

"I am a person," Wolff told him with a growl, turning to confront him. "I am more than this Psi Corps badge I am forced to wear."

"I know," Verdi tried to soothe his short-fused friend. "But Shukar does not, no more than those pickpockets you took out. I do not trust him, but I do trust you. I will be too busy fighting to look for treachery. You and Tano won't."

Wolf's look did not ease. "I won't help you in the fight."

"I know," Verdi told him, "and I wouldn't let you anyway. Just monitor everyone to make sure nothing's afoot. It is my fight."

Wolff continued his hard look before finally sighing and letting it go. "You might have a Centauri accent, but that's all you have in common with them."

Verdi tipped his head, not exactly taking it as an insult.

"I'll stand Ka-Tow and keep watch for foul play," Wolff said finally.

"Good," Verdi nodded, his short peacock-like crest bobbing with the movement as it had a tendency to do. "I had a bribe prepared for you but it seems I won't have to use it."

"Bribe?" Wolff asked.

"Yikkiti eggs," Verdi explained. "I don't know if they're similar to chicken eggs you're always searching for though."

" _You_ have _eggs_?" Wolff interrupted in surprise.

"Half a dozen," Verdi promised. "I'll give them to you as a gift for agreeing."

Wolff gave him a bizarre look. "Instead of bribing me with them?"

Verdi gave him an amused look in response, and Wolff shoved him playfully. Things did not escalate though and the two returned walking back the way he had come. While Verdi was one of the top Mutai fighters, Wolff was very astute at offensive telepathic skills. Just as easily as Verdi could knock him out with a well-landed hit, Wolff could hit him with a mindflare and bring him to his knees. Perhaps their mutual strength was the reason they got along with each other.

"I am honored to have the menace of Psi Corps stand Ka-Tow for me," Verdi said with a smile, slinging an arm over Wolff's shoulders.

Wolff just laughed.

* * *

 **I'm just introducing some OC's to fill in the spaces left behind. The whole deal with Verdi is that i like the concept of the Mutari, and was disappointed when it only showed up in one episode so I brought it back. I wouldn't say it's a major role or anything, but I like it and I don't want to just have one plot that wears into the ground. Silver is going to be out for awhile recovering and the Dilgar girl won't be woken for some time to come, so I don't want the plot to grind to a halt.**

 _ **Pre-warning: I doubt I'm going to pair off Leon and Harmony if that's what you're thinking. Most pairings, especially if I try it, mess up the storyline. Romance just isn't my genre.**_


	8. Impossible

Leon Wolff glided inside Medbay 1, the Boston cream pie resting in one arm. Hobbs looked up at his entrance and at the pie.

"She's not awake," Hobbs warned him.

"I know," Leon told her ads he set the treat on a clear space. "But she'll wake up soon."

Silver could wake up any time now, but Hobbs found it hard to believe Wolff could tell when. He had a strange knack for things like that though, so she didn't disagree with him. Hobbs did, however, glanced behind Wolff and gave him a warning look. Someone had just walked down the hallway, making for the doors of Medbay 1. Wolff didn't catch her warning in time.

"Leon Wolff!" Someone shouted behind him, startling the telepath.

He whipped around, a knowing look of horror on his face as he recognized the voice. Wolff's guess was confirmed. It was a human in her late-thirties, her mousy brown hair cut so it was ear length with bangs clipped back. Unlike Wolff, she was dressed neatly and professionally in a dark red and khaki suit, skirt knee-length, and heels clicking on the floor. Like Wolff though, she wore black leather gloves and a Psi Corps badge pinned onto the left side of her jacket. She wore them comfortably though.

"Hello Day," Wolff greeted her warily.

Evelyn Day, the new commercial telepath to Babylon 5, was not amused. " _Why_ were you brawling in the Zócalo?"

Wolff shrugged. "I caught a pair of lurker trying their hand at petty theft. You should have seen how many identicards they had, they-"

"I don't care," Day interrupted him. "The matters of mundanes are no concern of ours."

"Says you," Wolff muttered, obviously disagreeing.

"It's because of that attitude that a natural teep like you is out here instead of back home rising through the ranks." Day warned him.

"I know," Wolff agreed strongly, and then had the audacity to smile.

Hobbs and the other mundanes in the area thankfully stayed out of their argument, something that ended well for them. Wolff had been transferred to Babylon 5 at his own request, and his request had been approved after a colorful incident involving a Psi Cop. Although the details were classified, he was lucky he hadn't been put in prison because of his attitude concerning Psi Corps.

It had something to do with the fact that he was a natural telepath, one whose telepath had awakened before puberty. Despite being a P5, he was stronger than a normal P5 because he was a natural. He could track as well as a P8 bloodhound unit and he was capable of "fooling a Psi Cop" (whatever that meant).

"Excuse me," Hobbs finally interrupted when they didn't stand down. "Could you two please not get into a fight here?"

"Mindwar," Wolff corrected. "When two teeps get into a fight with their Psi skills it's called a mindwar."

"Why are you educating them on our customs?" Day asked him snippety.

"Because she didn't know," Wolff said obviously.

Day fixed him with a serious look, and then gave Hobbs a blank look when the doctor didn't look away. It was as if she couldn't grasp why a mundane was trying to give her orders. She looked back at Wolff, lips not moving. Wolff rolled his eyes, obviously not agreeing with what she had told him telepathically. After a minute of them speaking thought to thought, Day gave a huff and left without a glance at the mundanes.

Wolff rubbed his right temple after she left, and glanced over at Hobbs and asked: "Can I get something for a headache?"

Hobbs sighed, and pointed him towards a nurse. Wolff gave her a smile and drifted over to get a shot for his headache. Although Wolff had taught himself how to use his telepathy since he was a child and had received official training for the past two years, he remained better at scanning thoughts then blocking them. On a station as crowded as Babylon 5, headaches were a near-constant struggle and Day's impatience never helped the matter.

Hobbs turned away from him and looked back at her hybrid patient. Silver was still sleeping in the isolab, having been stabilized by a transfusion from the Dilgar girl and the new antidote for the Night Shadow virus. It was fortunate that the girl was here because Silver's blood type was E – a Dilgar blood type. The girl had saved Silver's life, and the vaccine she had been given had allowed a cure to be created.

Hobbs had left the girl from _Dark Starr_ in her cryotube for now though. She wanted to wait until Silver was up to strength before she awoke the girl. Silver was the only one that could possibly connect with the Dilgar girl, and once the girl learned that her race was extinct and her planet destroyed, she would need a friend.

For now, everyone within the Interstellar Alliance and several people outside of it were forced to wait until Silver was stable. Thankfully, no one had yet suggested the girl not be awoken. Hobbs thought it was likely because she was a young girl, and no threat to anyone. If she had been an adult, then someone might have suggested leaving her in cryo.

"Are you thinking about the girl?" Wolff asked as he glided up silently beside Hobbs.

Hobbs had no idea how he moved so silently, and jumped when he spoke. She took a breath and nodded agreement to Wolff's question.

"Harm's the only one that even speaks the Dilgar language nowadays," Wolff said thoughtfully as he looked at Silver while she rested. "Otherwise it's a dead language, deader than the Markab. It's good that you're waiting a few days. Sheridan's even staying on B5 instead of heading back to Minbar to see how this turns out."

"Everyone thought the Dilgar species was dead," Hobbs said thoughtfully. "Then Jha'dur shows up on the station five years ago. Silver's been assigned her since the station opened six years ago, and now we find a pure-blood Dilgar girl in cryo. I'm beginning to wonder if the Dilgar species will ever _truly_ be dead."

"You and everyone else around here," Wolff chuckled.

He rubbed a temple, the headache finally receding.

"You know," Wolff said off topic, "if you just gave me a Hypospray and some doses for a headache I could do it myself and not need to bother you nearly as much as I am."

"It's against regulation," Hobbs repeated what she had told him before. "The medicine I use to help your migraines are a controlled substance. They're a type of stims. This makes them easy to get addicted to."

Wolff crossed his arms over his chest, irritated. Then his slouched stance straightened and his brown eyes brightened. He looked over at Silver, a smile starting to form.

"She's waking up," Wolff informed Hobbs.

Hobbs looked at him and then at Silver. She was turning her head and starting to stir. Surprised, Hobbs left Wolff's side and approached the isolab window. Quickly, she looked at her screens and saw that Silver's heartbeat and respiration were steadily rising. Silver was indeed waking up.

Wolff drew his eyebrows together, and bit his lower lip lightly. Silver, as a Dilgar, had a very strong mind. Her parents had been killed when she was a baby, and she had been raised for the first decade of her life by her Dilgar grandmother. This meant that she had been trained to sense, and to some degree, block scans. He had intended to drop the scan before Silver realized she was scanning him, as he knew she did _not_ take that lightly, when he realized her mind was different.

"Something's wrong," Wolff whispered. "Hobbs… something's wrong with Silver."

"What?" Hobbs asked. "What is it?"

Wolff didn't hear her though. He was listening to Harmony Silver's thoughts. There was resistance to his touch, something he was used, but this was different.

Silver stopped her tossing and opened her eyes as she awoke. Wolff jumped as he heard her scream, startling Hobbs. He put a hand over one of his ears.

"What is it?" Hobbs asked him quickly. "Do you hear something?"

That was when Wolff realized that Hobbs couldn't hear her scream. Several times Wolff had asked Silver if she was secretly telepathic, her being able to tell when she was being scanned. She wasn't telepathic though, not even a latent. When his pestering had gotten too extreme, she had allowed him to perform a psi test on her. He had confirmed that she simply had no psychic ability in her genetic coding. Her skill was simple training.

The scream he heard was in Wolff's mind. He pushed Hobbs back and approached the window, focusing. Part of his training was how to deal with a newly awakened telepath who was mentally overwhelmed by the thoughts of others. After a few seconds of focusing, he was able to reach through the overwhelming thoughts that bombarded Silver's mind and speak to her directly.

 _*Harm! Harm!*_ Wolff ordered. _*Focus on my voice! Listen to me!*_

He realized that Silver had acknowledged his presence, and Wolff tried to put up a block around Silver and the thoughts she was hearing. Her Psi rating was evidently higher than a P5 though because he had trouble blocking all the thoughts she was detecting.

 _*Leon*_ Silver thought in a pained voice, weak and confused.

 _*Yes*_ Wolff promised her. _*Harm, listen to me. Calm down, and do as I say Harm. You need to focus only on me. Let all the other thoughts fade away. Imagine a wall behind your eyes, and build it. Eliminate the thoughts you don't want to hear.*_

Slowly, Silver's heartbeat slowed and her breathing calmed. Wolff exhaled and let the telepathic connection fade away. Hobbs was watching him intently, so Wolff summed the problem up.

"I don't know how," Wolff started. "I've confirmed it myself that she has no psi ability, but I just helped her build a teep's wall to block thoughts. She's telepathic."

"What?" Hobbs asked. "You just said that she doesn't have any psi ability. How is she suddenly telepathic?"

Wolff shrugged helplessly, hands raised. Telepathy was genetic, and you either had the talent or you didn't. You couldn't just suddenly become telepathic. It was simply impossible. He had no idea what was going on here.

* * *

 **Yes, I know how the rules of the Babylon 5 universe work concerning telepaths. No, I'm not rewriting those rules with this chapter. Let me assure you that this sort of things will not suddenly become common with everyone spontaneously gaining telepathy. It is a plot twist and plot enhancer, but it is not the main vocal point of the story. If you've read my other stories, and even if you haven't, you should know that I don't take the main characters and then create my own rules for the story. This is _fanfiction_ , so I stick to the in-house rules of their universe as much as possible. There is a good reason for this development which will be explained in later chapters.**


	9. Artificial Telepathy

President John J Sheridan was in medlab 1, wanting an in person assessment on what exactly was going on. The Dilgar ship was quarantined in Bay 13, and the girl in medlab 1 with Harmony Silver. Silver had been stabilized by a transfusion _from_ the girl who had the vaccine for the Night Shadow virus in her blood. The virus had been cured, easing the tensions that had spiked when news of the virus was made public. Now though, things had once again gone to hell.

Sheridan looked at Silver as she sat up in isolab 1, letting one of the other doctors that worked with Hobbs check her out. The doctor didn't have an environmental suit, proof that Silver was no longer contagious. Silver was staying in there out of choice to put some distance between herself and the others, and all available personnel that could leave the medlab had been dismissed. The reason had just finished being explained to the President.

"You're saying that Lieutenant Silver is a telepath?" Sheridan repeated.

"She's not," Hobbs told him. "There's not enough telepathic DNA to manifest into a psi rating. It's the same problem the Narns are facing, and she has as much Psi skill as they do."

"Yet she's reading minds," Sheridan said in confusion as he tried to understand.

"Yes," Hobbs admitted. "That's why I minimized the staff in here. She's having trouble blocking thoughts."

"But I thought you just said…" Sheridan's voice trailed off.

"I know," Hobbs assured him and rubbed her forehead. "And no, I don't understand what's going on."

Sheridan looked even more confused as the doctor left the isolab, and Silver glanced through the window at him. She looked away, running her fingers through her dark red hair that she had freed from her braids. He fixed Hobbs with a serious look, wanting an answer.

"I think I can explain something," Wolff broke the confused silence respectfully, having stayed behind to help Silver keep her psi block strong.

Sheridan turned to face him, and Wolff quieted.

"Well?" Sheridan prompted.

"I'm trying to figure out how to say this," Wolff defended himself, albeit respectfully since Sheridan was the president.

Sheridan didn't prompt him again as Wolff tried to explain this.

"Silver is trained to sense and block telepaths," Wolff said.

"Trained?" Sheridan repeated, headache furrowing in confusion. "That's rare. How did she get the training?"

"Well, I, um… I don't know," Wollf said bluntly after a brief spell of stuttering.

Sheridan looked between Wolff and Hobbs in exasperation. "Does anyone here know what's going on?"

"Because I wouldn't stop asking how she could detect my scans, she relented and told me about the training." Wolff explained, trying to make up for looking like an idiot. "She told me that if I didn't stop sensing her surface thoughts that she'd give me a good shiner and then some."

"Knowing how to block scans and scanning people are too different things," Sheridan pointed out.

"She didn't use Dust," Hobbs interrupted. "That was the first thing I checked."

"Dust?" Wolff's eyebrows shot up. "Of course, she'd never use something as unstable as that to turn into a teep. Besides, she was brought rescued from _Dark Starr_ a mundane and woke up a telepath. No one gave her Dust during the time she was unconscious, right?"

"Well, that would hint that something happened here to make her a telepath," Sheridan pointed at the floor of medbay 1.

"Normally I would agree with you," Hobbs said slowly, "but there's no way. In order for the Night Shadow virus to have turned her into a telepath when the talent isn't there it would have to rewrite her DNA. That never happened."

"Hobbs is right about the DNA," Wolff added.

"So no one knows how she's able to read minds," Sheridan summed up with a brief look between Dr. Hobbs and Leon Wolff.

Neither answered, as he suspected they would do. Sheridan exhaled, secretly not surprised by these proceedings. Something was _always_ happening on this station. Hobbs, perhaps remembering something, turned away from them and began checking something on a monitor.

"Have you told Psi Corps yet?" Sheridan asked as Silver laid down and rolled onto her side, facing the wall rather than the window.

"No," Wolff replied softly. "I wouldn't do something like that to her. Day will probably find out before long. She'll walk by someone who knows and pick up a stray surface thought. She'll think it's her duty to help a newly fledged telepath reach their potential and remove them from the inferior mundanes as quickly as possible."

Wolff scoffed as he finished, and Sheridan found his lips twitching, wanting to smile at Wolff's sarcasm. This was a telepath he could grow to like.

Hobbs waved a hand, snapping her fingers at the two of them without looking up. "Hey, I think I just found something."

"Something what?" Wolf asked.

"It's the girl," Hobbs said obviously and finally looked away from the screen, eyes darting rapidly back to it. "The Dilgar girl's telepathic. I just ran a test on her blood. The telepathic genome is there and it's active."

Neither of the men understood the implications of it, so Hobbs explained further.

"I gave Lieutenant Silver a transfusion of her blood," Hobbs explained. "Since Silver's DNA favors her Dilgar side, I familiarized myself with them. Dilgar have an incredibly flexible genome. That's why they're able to interbreed with humans. Cross-species children are normally very rare, but they can interbreed with _several_ different species."

"What does this have to do with Silver's condition?" Sheridan asked.

One of Wolff's eyebrows twitched when Sheridan described Silver's telepathy as a "condition." He spoke about psychic abilities as if it were some sort of sickness that needed to be cured. People like this made it easy for Wolff to understand why Day acted as she did.

Sheridan must have noticed Wolff's reaction because he added a, "no offense."

Wolff didn't respond, although he knew that few mundanes would apologize. Sheridan was different in that regard.

"DNA is in a person's blood," Hobbs continued on the original subject. "When I gave Silver the girl's blood, I exposed her to her telepathic DNA. Do you think that would be enough to create an artificial telepath?"

"A simple blood transfusion?" Wolff said dubiously. "I mean, I guess it's possible. I know the Psi Corps been trying to create artificial telepaths, that's why they created Dust, but they've never had any success. It might just be a Dilgar thing. You said their genome was flexible, so they might be able to accept telepathic DNA."

Sheridan nodded as he thought and then asked. "I suppose the real question is, is this permanent? Or will it last only until the transfused blood cells die off?"

"Blood cells usually live around four months in a healthy adult human," Hobbs warned with a frown. "Since it's a transfusion it should only last between thirty to sixty days. She is part-Dilgar though, and this crossover of telepathy is new… It could change the numbers."

It was obvious that Hobbs didn't know. Wolff shook his head, and then smiled. Sheridan wondered about his reaction until he saw Silver had rolled over and was looking through the window at him. A direct line of sight was most often needed for a telepath. He didn't ask Wolff what Silver telling him. If she wanted them to hear it then Wolff would verbally repeat her words.

"Harmony wants to go back to normal," Wolff did indeed relay, repeating at least a bit of the conversation.

"I'll take some blood samples from her," Hobbs said, speaking clearly as she knew Silver could hear her. "I can see if her DNA is rewriting itself. If it's not then it should be temporary, but I don't know how long the effects will last. If it is linked to the transfused blood then it may die out with the blood cells, or it might fade sooner."

If Dilgar DNA could "spike" to telepathic like this then it made the destruction of Omelos and the rest of the Dilgar race quite convenient. Silver rolled back over away from the window as the thought crossed her mind, irritated. Wolff smiled and looked down at the floor briefly, amused by something Silver had mentioned before she had broken her line of sight. There wasn't much more to say, and only time would bring the needed answers.

"Alright," Sheridan sighed deeply. "Keep me informed on her condition. When are you going to wake up the other Dilgar?"

"That girl is telepathic," Hobbs repeated what she had said earlier. "Once she wakes up and sees that we're in human custody, the humans being the race she was last at war with, she'll scan us. I can give her sleepers to subdue her psi abilities, but eventually she will learn that her race is extinct. I thought it prudent to wait until the only other Dilgar present was stable."

Sheridan nodded that was wise. "Lochley's okay with this?"

"She's given me jurisdiction over this," Hobbs said.

"Alright, I'll be in session with the Interstellar Alliance Council," Sheridan told her. "Give me a warning before you wake her up."

Wolff snickered, this time at Sheridan's comment instead of Silver's. "The Alliance wants to talk to you over this?"

"The Night Shadow Virus got their attention and this is the Dilgar." Sheridan pointed out.

Hobbs decided that made sense, and the conversation ended. Wolff began working with the Boston cream pie he had brought, intending to bring Silver a slice to cheer her up. Once again, Hobbs told him she wasn't ready for solid food like that. Sheridan left them and the handful of other people present and walked outside Medlab 1.

Given the circumstances, there were two security guards outside. They were all human, the Narns having been cycled out of security with the crisis of the Earth Alliance Civil War over. Sheridan nodded at them, and took two steps before a voice, sadly all too familiar, called his name.

"What now?" Sheridan asked as he turned around and saw a human in her late thirties.

She was wearing a knee-length skirt and long-sleeved blazer colored a dark blue, a black blouse underneath it, black tights, and a pair of black heels. Her curly sorrel brown hair was stylized in long ringlets that reached past her mid-back. The hazel eyes that apprised him were both cold and sharp, and her heels clicked as she approached Sheridan in a rush. In one hand was her ever-present recorder.

Sheridan almost groaned as the reporter approached him, wishing she wasn't here. The woman activated her recorder as she got within range of the president and raised it towards herself as she spoke so it could register her voice.

"This is ISN reporter Alyss Wilson, stationed on Babylon 5," Wilson began. "President Sheridan, do have a statement about the current situation involving the Dilgar?"

She then stuck her recorder right in front of Sheridan's face, so close to his nose that he took a step back, afraid she was going to hit him with it in her enthusiasm.

"There is no situation with the Dilgar," Sheridan corrected her sternly. "The Dilgar ship in our hanger is a civilian craft, not a war cruiser. There is no reason to panic."

"Then you claim that there is nothing to fear despite the fact that a fully operational Dilgar ship has been found with a Dilgar onboard?" Wilson asked bluntly.

Sheridan gave a start surprised initially, but then not. The cryotube with the Dilgar girl had been covered when it had been moved from her ship to Medlab 1, and it had been done in secrecy. How word had spread of her was something he could not as much a surprise as he thought it would be. Babylon 5's grapevine was overpowered like that.

"Wilson!"

Someone saved Sheridan from answering, and Sheridan was relieved to see Sergeant Pierce approach, stalking more than walking. She looked distinctly fed up with Wilson, the reporter having already established herself as a nuisance. Wilson lowered her recorder and turned 180° to face Pierce, the two women exchanging scowls.

"Sergeant," Wilson said in an icy tone.

Pierce crossed her arms behind her back, a dangerous irritation in her stance and voice. "Ms. Wilson, this is a restricted area. You are a civilian."

"I am a reporter," Wilson retorted.

Sheridan saw an opportunity to leave and slowly began to inch away backwards to make his escape. Pierce seemed to notice what Sheridan was trying to do, and continued speaking to distract Wilson.

"That's good to know," Pierce said sarcastically, tucking her hands into her pants pockets. "I think I've heard that somewhere before."

"Sergeant," Wilson told her in a brittle tone without leaving.

"This is secure territory," Pierce told her. "I give you this chance to leave, but do not expect another."

"And give up my chance to get my interview?" Wilson stuffed her recorder into her jacket pocket. "Why would I do that? The public has a right to know what is going on, and I am the one who gets that information for them."

Pierce smiled at her tone, neither woman breaking eye contact. "I understand that you have a right to snoop, but that right ends where my authority begins. I am the member of security, _not_ a politician, so don't expect to act like one. If you're looking for political politeness, then arrange an interview with one of the ambassadors. Right now, I suggest you leave before you finally give me the excuse I need to put you in the brig."

"I am trying to get an interview if you will step back Sergeant," Wilson snapped.

She turned back towards Sheridan only to find that he was gone. Her jaw dropped slightly and she looked around the narrow hallway as if he might appear. The two security guards were standing at attention stayed still, pretending that they hadn't noticed Sheridan's escape.

"You were saying?" Pierce repeated.

Wilson tightened her lips into a thin line and looked over her shoulder at Pierce coldly. The look was fierce enough to make most people quiver, but Pierce returned it coolly with one of her own. After realizing that Pierce had won yet again, Wilson huffed and stalked past her nemesis. Pierce let her go.

Once Wilson was out of earshot, Pierce looked up at the ceiling and muttered. "One of these days I'll get her in the brig."

The two security guards near Medbay 1's door exchanged amused looks. They, like everyone else, had become accustomed to the "catfights" between the Sergeant and reporter. They had been going on for the past two months, ever since Sheridan and Delenn had left for the new Interstellar Alliance headquarters on Minbar and Pierce had been promoted. Pierce's gaze slid over to her men and they instantly snapped back to attention.

"Hmph," Pierce muttered in their direction before walking towards a turbolift to resume her duties elsewhere.

The guards exhaled in visible relief once the doors of the turbolift Pierce had walked into closed.

* * *

 **Yeah, not much to say about this chapter except Wilson is one of those stereotypical extra-snoopy reporters and although she's not dangerous she can be something of a menace.**


	10. New and Old Faces

Ambassador Ta'Lon of Narn waited in the customs area as the earth shuttle from the _Asimov_ finished docking and the passengers began to disembark, his k'tok still worn over his shoulder. The first few passengers began to appear and give their identicard to the security officer. There were two guards there, allowing the check-in line to move faster than it normally would. Despite it being an earth shuttle, several non-humans also left. A Narn was also registered on the ship, and Ta'Lon waited patiently for them to appear.

Ta'Lon's appointment as the Narn's ambassador to the Interstellar Alliance had not been questioned, seeing as G'Kar had been the one to appoint him. Similarly, no one had questioned the choice of his attaché. He waited as the passengers began to walk through customs. Some were met by family, friends, or business associates while others walked straight through without speaking to anyone.

As he waited for his new attaché to show herself, he spotted Security Chief Zack Allen standing to one side. Allen was idly watching the newcomers, seeing if any of them struck him as trouble. None of them had as of yet, but he noticed Ta'Lon had looked at him. Ta'Lon tipped his head in Allen's direction in greeting, and Allen nodded, returning the hello.

Ta'Lon glanced back at the passengers from Allen just in time to see his new attaché accept her identicard back from the security guard and step forward. She saw Ta'Lon and approached him, a bag slung over one shoulder.

"Ambassador Ta'Lon," she greeted him. "I am to be your new attaché, Na'Toth."

Ta'Lon smiled. "Yes, I know. Welcome back to Babylon 5."

Na'Toth saluted with one hand, her other hand keeping her bag from falling off her shoulder. Ta'Lon happily returned the salute to his new attaché. Considering that she had once served as diplomatic aide to G'Kar, no one had dared say no when Na'Toth requested she become Ta'Lon's attaché.

Allen smiled when he saw Na'Toth, and watched the two Narns as they left customs. A few other Narns in customs had been watching G'Kar's successor (Ta'Lon) and G'Kar's aide (Na'Toth) with a look of awe and reverence. He shook his head at the attention they were still getting despite G'Kar and Lyta Alexander having left several months ago.

Allen returned to his watch over the newcomers, and saw a few more humans leave. Then he saw a brown-haired Centauri wearing his hair crest tall, indicating he was of the Great Houses. Vir Cotto, who had been sitting and waiting, stood and greeted the newcomer. If Allen had to guess, that Centauri was Vir's new attaché– Avar Ellas. With this, Allen mused, the ambassadorial staff would finally be fully stocked.

The next newcomer that caught Allen's eye was a girl, human in appearance, who looked fifteen or sixteen. She had pale skin as if she were a vampire – that was, had never seen the sun – and her straight platinum blonde hair was plain and unstyled, almost reaching her shoulders. It appeared it had been hacked off at that point with the blade of a knife. Her clothing was severely cut black cloth that showed no skin from her neck down, she even wore gloves.

Even from where Allen stood, he was aware of a certain aura of power and confidence around the girl. It made the guard scanning her identicard to return it tenderly and then step back as she walked across customs. The people who saw her fell silent and stepped out of her way, never taking their eyes off her. Allen thought it might be a good idea to introduce himself, but wasn't able to move from his spot and approach the girl.

The young teenager looked ahead as she walked as if she was the only person in customs, her gold-green eyes deep and dark. Allen didn't realize he was holding his breath until after the teenager left customs. He exhaled and took a breath. The other people in customs looked at each other and then returned to what they were doing with another glance at where the young human had gone.

Allen had no idea what he had just seen, but truly doubted the girl was just another human. Was she some sort of telepath? He hadn't seen a Psi Corps pin, but she might be a blip.

He was able to move again and walked forward, approaching the security guard that had checked her identicard. The passenger line was almost gone so it wasn't a hassle to pull the guard aside and let his line merge with the other one.

"That girl you checked in?" Allen asked, "What was her name?"

The security guard had checked in many female passengers but he knew instantly which one Allen meant. He scrolled through the records to the young girl in black. Once he found her, he turned the tablet so Allen could see. It wasn't a Psi Corps identicard she had used. In fact, it wasn't even Earth Corps. There was no sign from her card which faction she owed allegiance to. Her name - River - was listed, but there was no last name. Allen didn't like it.

"Send a copy of the identicard to me," Allen ordered him.

The guard nodded. By now, all of the passengers had been checked in so there was nothing else to do for the guard. Allen glanced in the direction River had gone, thinking that first there was a Dilgar ship reappearing and then the Night Shadow Virus. The moment one problem was solved another one appeared. Sometimes he wished he'd stayed on Earth. If he was there then he might stand a chance at some peace and quiet.

Ta'Lon and Na'Toth walked along Babylon 5's corridors on the way to Green Sector. They were taking their time, Ta'Lon letting Na'Toth acclimate to the noise and chaos of the station. Na'Toth was looking around, seeing how much the station had changed since her departure and how much it had stayed the same.

"Na'Toth," Ta'Lon asked after several minutes.

Na'Toth glanced over at him.

"Why did you decide to come back?" Ta'Lon asked. "Why didn't you stay on homeworld?"

Na'Toth thought about her answer. "After the Centauri bombed homeworld, I was taken prisoner and brought back to Centauri Prime to "entertain" them. They didn't find me suitably entertaining, so I was placed in the dungeon and forgotten. From 2259 to 2262, I stayed in that dungeon. Then G'Kar found me and sent me home. I had healing to do, in body and spirit."

"Most of my family had died when homeworld fell," Na'Toth continued somberly. "My pouchsister and her daughter Na'Rin were some of the only ones left. I stayed with them while my bones mended and my bruises faded. My body healed."

"Your spirit?" Ta'Lon asked, seeing what she had failed to mention.

Na'Toth gave a wry smile. "No, my spirit would not. I didn't understand why that was so. I was back home with family, and working to recover our home and people from the _Centauri's_ attack. Then Na'Rin said it was because I wasn't on Babylon 5."

Ta'Lon smiled.

"Naturally," Na'Toth sighed, "I asked her what she meant. She said that my soul was content there, and that I missed it. My role was to be there or in a place like it, fighting for Narn's rights in a way that did not include rebuilding streets. That was my calling, and my soul missed that."

"Children can see things we adults can only envy," Ta'Lon agreed. "Was she right?"

"That is what I have returned to Babylon 5 to see," Na'Toth informed him.

There was a silent undercurrent beneath her words. Na'Toth might not stay here if she felt it was not working. Ta'Lon took note of her unspoken promise.

"So," Na'Toth said on a different note. "What has happened in my absence?"

Ta'Lon thought about the highlights. Na'Toth would already be informed of large things like the Earth Alliance's civil war and the new Captain of B5, so Ta'Lon told her about the little things.

"There are two Earth telepaths here," Ta'Lon began. "One is the commercial telepath and the other is just here. He's a friend of the Centauri's, Leon Wolff."

Na'Toth made a growl-like noise, and Ta'Lon nodded in sympathy.

"Gyor, the last Sho-Rin of the Mutai, was killed when Raiders attacked his ship," Ta'Lon added, not sure if Na'Toth was a Narn who liked watching the Mutai. "One of Wolff's Centauri friends is in the running for the title Sho-Rin."

Na'Toth nodded that she had heard, but didn't pay attention to his words. She had been to see a Mutai match once before on the station, and hadn't returned. The way they fought was not satisfying to Na'Toth, and she didn't see the point of two fine warriors attacking each other until one of them stayed down – usually with the loser crippled or dead.

Ta'Lon could tell she wasn't too interested, so he fell quiet for a second as he thought about what else to tell her that she should learn about right away. When he spoke, it was in a casual, backhanded manor as if what he remembered was nothing too spectacular.

"Silver went out on one of her jaunts and found a Dilgar ship."

Na'Toth stopped walking and said in a voice similar to a snap, "what?"

Ta'Lon faced her and shrugged. Na'Toth shook her head and resumed walking. Although this was new, it was not as big of a surprise as it could have been as it _was_ Silver.

"Her fighter was damaged," Ta'Lon explained before Na'Toth asked. "She was in Hyperspace and running out of oxygen so she abandoned her Starfury and boarded the Dilgar ship. It had a stable atmosphere, albeit tainted with Jha'Dur's Night Shadow virus, and was found by the station. The doctor managed to replicate a cure for the virus, and she's stable. I'm not sure if the situation is yet or not."

Na'Toth had exhaled when she heard about Silver's adventure, but now smiled. "That sounds just like Silver."

Perhaps she had missed Babylon 5 more than she had realized.

Ta'Lon nodded agreement as Na'Toth reached the quarters he had arranged for her. "When do you wish to begin your duties?"

"Tomorrow," Na'Toth said strongly. "I'll learn what else has changed as I go."

Ta'Lon didn't question her, Na'Toth knowing her own limits best. He fisted his arms over his chest in a Narn salute, and Na'Toth returned it correctly this time. Then she used her identicard to open her new quarters and walked inside. She would unpack, get some food, and sleep for what awaited her. Her new schedule had already been sent to her console by Ta'Lon, and she would also have to look at that.

It was time to see if her niece was right and Na'Toth's place really was here, representing her people among the stars.

* * *

 **Vir's new attache is part of the same house as Veri Ellas, Wolff's Centauri friend, who is ignoring his family and not acting like a noble should. I like Na'Toth, so I brought her back. Silver gets along with the Narns much better then the Centauri, so she was friends with G'Kar and Na'Toth. As for River... keep an eye out for her. She's young but don't let that fool you.**


	11. The Problem with Being a Telepath

Ambassador Ta'Lon of Narn waited in the customs area as the earth shuttle from the _Asimov_ finished docking and the passengers began to disembark, his k'tok still worn over his shoulder. The first few passengers began to appear and give their identicard to the security officer. There were two guards there, allowing the check-in line to move faster than it normally would. Despite it being an earth shuttle, several non-humans also left. A Narn was also registered on the ship, and Ta'Lon waited patiently for them to appear.

Ta'Lon's appointment as the Narn's ambassador to the Interstellar Alliance had not been questioned, seeing as G'Kar had been the one to appoint him. Similarly, no one had questioned the choice of his attaché. He waited as the passengers began to walk through customs. Some were met by family, friends, or business associates while others walked straight through without speaking to anyone.

As he waited for his new attaché to show herself, he spotted Security Chief Zack Allen standing to one side. Allen was idly watching the newcomers, seeing if any of them struck him as trouble. None of them had as of yet, but he noticed Ta'Lon had looked at him. Ta'Lon tipped his head in Allen's direction in greeting, and Allen nodded, returning the hello.

Ta'Lon glanced back at the passengers from Allen just in time to see his new attaché accept her identicard back from the security guard and step forward. She saw Ta'Lon and approached him, a bag slung over one shoulder.

"Ambassador Ta'Lon," she greeted him. "I am to be your new attaché, Na'Toth."

Ta'Lon smiled. "Yes, I know. Welcome back to Babylon 5."

Na'Toth saluted with one hand, her other hand keeping her bag from falling off her shoulder. Ta'Lon happily returned the salute to his new attaché. Considering that she had once served as diplomatic aide to G'Kar, no one had dared say no when Na'Toth requested she become Ta'Lon's attaché.

Allen smiled when he saw Na'Toth, and watched the two Narns as they left customs. A few other Narns in customs had been watching G'Kar's successor (Ta'Lon) and G'Kar's aide (Na'Toth) with a look of awe and reverence. He shook his head at the attention they were still getting despite G'Kar and Lyta Alexander having left several months ago.

Allen returned to his watch over the newcomers, and saw a few more humans leave. Then he saw a brown-haired Centauri wearing his hair crest tall, indicating he was of the Great Houses. Vir Cotto, who had been sitting and waiting, stood and greeted the newcomer. If Allen had to guess, that Centauri was Vir's new attaché– Avar Ellas. With this, Allen mused, the ambassadorial staff would finally be fully stocked.

The next newcomer that caught Allen's eye was a girl, human in appearance, who looked fifteen or sixteen. She had pale skin as if she were a vampire – that was, had never seen the sun – and her straight platinum blonde hair was plain and unstyled, almost reaching her shoulders. It appeared it had been hacked off at that point with the blade of a knife. Her clothing was severely cut black cloth that showed no skin from her neck down, she even wore gloves.

Even from where Allen stood, he was aware of a certain aura of power and confidence around the girl. It made the guard scanning her identicard to return it tenderly and then step back as she walked across customs. The people who saw her fell silent and stepped out of her way, never taking their eyes off her. Allen thought it might be a good idea to introduce himself, but wasn't able to move from his spot and approach the girl.

The young teenager looked ahead as she walked as if she was the only person in customs, her gold-green eyes deep and dark. Allen didn't realize he was holding his breath until after the teenager left customs. He exhaled and took a breath. The other people in customs looked at each other and then returned to what they were doing with another glance at where the young human had gone.

Allen had no idea what he had just seen, but truly doubted the girl was just another human. Was she some sort of telepath? He hadn't seen a Psi Corps pin, but she might be a blip.

He was able to move again and walked forward, approaching the security guard that had checked her identicard. The passenger line was almost gone so it wasn't a hassle to pull the guard aside and let his line merge with the other one.

"That girl you checked in?" Allen asked, "What was her name?"

The security guard had checked in many female passengers but he knew instantly which one Allen meant. He scrolled through the records to the young girl in black. Once he found her, he turned the tablet so Allen could see. It wasn't a Psi Corps identicard she had used. In fact, it wasn't even Earth Corps. There was no sign from her card which faction she owed allegiance to.

There was very little information on the card at all. Her name was listed though – River. No last name was listed. Allen didn't like it.

"Send a copy of the identicard to me," Allen ordered him.

The guard nodded. By now, all of the passengers had been checked in so there was nothing else to do for the guard. Allen glanced in the direction River had gone, thinking that first there was a Dilgar ship reappearing and then the Night Shadow Virus. The moment one problem was solved another one appeared. Sometimes he wished he'd stayed on Earth. If he was there then he might stand a chance at some peace and quiet.

Ta'Lon and Na'Toth walked along Babylon 5's corridors on the way to Green Sector. They were taking their time, Ta'Lon letting Na'Toth acclimate to the noise and chaos of the station. Na'Toth was looking around, seeing how much the station had changed since her departure and how much it had stayed the same.

"Na'Toth," Ta'Lon asked after several minutes.

Na'Toth glanced over at him.

"Why did you decide to come back?" Ta'Lon asked. "Why didn't you stay on homeworld?"

Na'Toth thought about her answer. "After the Centauri bombed homeworld, I was taken prisoner and brought back to Centauri Prime to "entertain" them. They didn't find me suitably entertaining, so I was placed in the dungeon and forgotten. From 2259 to 2262, I stayed in that dungeon. Then G'Kar found me and sent me back home. I had healing to do, in body and spirit."

"Most of my family had died when homeworld fell," Na'Toth continued somberly. "My pouchsister and her daughter Na'Rin were some of the only ones left. I stayed with them while my bones mended and my bruises faded. My body healed."

"Your spirit?" Ta'Lon asked, seeing what she had failed to mention.

Na'Toth gave a wry smile. "No, my spirit would not. I didn't understand why that was so. I was back home with family, and working to recover our home and people from the _Centauri's_ attack. Then Na'Rin said it was because I wasn't on Babylon 5."

Ta'Lon smiled.

"Naturally," Na'Toth sighed, "I asked her what she meant. She said that my soul was content there, and that I missed it. My role was to be there or in a place like it, fighting for Narn's rights in a way that did not include rebuilding streets. That was my calling, and my soul missed that."

"Children can see things we adults can only envy," Ta'Lon agreed. "Was she right?"

"That is what I have returned to Babylon 5 to see," Na'Toth informed him.

There was a silent undercurrent beneath her words. Na'Toth might not stay here if she felt it was not working. Ta'Lon took note of her unspoken promise.

"So," Na'Toth said on a different note. "What has happened in my absence?"

Ta'Lon thought about the highlights. Na'Toth would already be informed of large things like the Earth Alliance's civil war and the new Captain of B5, so Ta'Lon told her about the little things.

"There are two Earth telepaths here," Ta'Lon began. "One is the commercial telepath and the other is just here. He's a friend of the Centauri's, Leon Wolff."

Na'Toth made a growl-like noise, and Ta'Lon nodded in sympathy.

"Gyor, the last Sho-Rin of the Mutai, was killed when Raiders attacked his ship," Ta'Lon added, not sure if Na'Toth was a Narn who liked watching the Mutai. "One of Wolff's Centauri friends is in the running for the title Sho-Rin."

Na'Toth nodded that she had heard, but didn't pay attention to his words. She had been to see a Mutai match once before on the station, and hadn't returned. The way they fought was not satisfying to Na'Toth, and she didn't see the point of two fine warriors attacking each other until one of them stayed down – usually with the loser crippled or dead.

Ta'Lon could tell she wasn't too interested, so he fell quiet for a second as he thought about what else to tell her that she should learn about right away. When he spoke, it was in a casual, backhanded manor as if what he remembered was nothing too spectacular.

"Silver went out on one of her jaunts and found a Dilgar ship."

Na'Toth stopped walking and said in a voice similar to a snap, "what?"

Ta'Lon faced her and shrugged. Na'Toth shook her head and resumed walking. Although this was new, it was not as big of a surprise as it could have been as it _was_ Silver.

"Her fighter was damaged," Ta'Lon explained before Na'Toth asked. "She was in Hyperspace and running out of oxygen so she abandoned her Starfury and boarded the Dilgar ship. It had a stable atmosphere, albeit tainted with Jha'Dur's Night Shadow virus, and was found by the station. The doctor managed to replicate a cure for the virus, and she's stable. I'm not sure if the situation is yet or not."

Na'Toth had exhaled when she heard about Silver's adventure, but now smiled. "That sounds just like Silver."

Perhaps she had missed Babylon 5 more than she had realized.

Ta'Lon nodded agreement as Na'Toth reached the quarters he had arranged for her. "When do you wish to begin your duties?"

"Tomorrow," Na'Toth said strongly. "I'll learn what else has changed as I go."

Ta'Lon didn't question her, Na'Toth knowing her own limits best. He fisted his arms over his chest in a Narn salute, and Na'Toth returned it correctly this time. Then she used her identicard to open her new quarters and walked inside. She would unpack, get some food, and sleep for what awaited her. Her new schedule had already been sent to her console by Ta'Lon, and she would also have to look at that.

It was time to see if her niece was right and Na'Toth's place really was here, representing her people among the stars.

 **Chapter 11: The Pain of a Telepath**

Wolff, having successfully talked Hobbs into letting Silver eat a piece of the Boston cream pie, left Medbay 1. Silver had drifted off to sleep, giving him the freedom to leave her alone. That worked in his favor as he had something very important he needed to ask President Sheridan.

Wolff traveled to the conference room in Green Sector that the president had claimed as his office during his stay. When Wolff finally arrived, his Psi Corps ID clearing him for access into the "diplomatic sector," he hovered in the doorway. His timing seemed bad, for Sheridan was speaking to a blonde woman that Wolff identified almost instantly as Tessa Halloran, the IA's head of covert intelligence. The timing wasn't that off though because they appeared to be finishing.

Halloran stood with her report in in one hand, and the president stood to see her off as she left. Sheets in front of him indicated that Halloran had left a copy behind. As Halloran left, she tipped her head to Wolff and walked past him. He returned the motion. Although Wolff wasn't allowed to scan people randomly, he still occasionally detected surface thoughts. The few that he considered interesting he passed onto Halloran. Not all of them panned out, but sometimes they did, and they revealed things Halloran didn't otherwise know about.

Sheridan saw Wolff standing there, and he looked surprised by the telepath's visit.

"Mr. Wolff," Sheridan greeted him. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"Yes," Wolff assured him and entered the room, "but no."

Sheridan smiled, "which one is it?"

"I am here to pass on a request from a friend to you," Wolff relayed.

Sheridan gave him a perturbed look, looking confused and amused. "Ah, can't they just come speak to me?"

"No."

Sheridan nodded at Wolff's short answer, still confused.

"It's about Harmony Silver," Wolff explained slowly, unsure how to word this.

That instantly got Sheridan's attention and he nodded for Wolff to continue with a, "go on."

"Harmony can't come and see you, and it's wise for you to stay away from her, because of her ability," Wolff explained, sure about that. "She, and assumingly the Dilgar girl that she got the Psi rating from, are strong P12's – Psi cop level."

There was worry in his voice when he said that, and Sheridan became more serious himself.

"I'm worried what will happen to her if her psi ability doesn't dissipate," Wolff admitted, "and more worried about what will come if it does."

Sheridan had a feeling this would take some time to explain, so he motioned for Wolff to sit where Halloran had been. He put the notes, classified information, underneath his chair as Wolff sat. It was obvious he was on edge from the way his muscles tensed, sitting on the edge of the chair.

"Do you know what the Holy Grail of psi ability is?" Wolff asked, trying to say this in a way a mundane like Sheridan could understand.

Sheridan shook his head. Wolff had expected him to do that.

"If you're a teep then you're born with a Psi Rating," Wolff told him. "Psi Ratings are so important because they can't change. A P5 will always be a P5. They can be trained to use their gift to the best of their ability, but they can't become stronger. What every telepath wants is way to grow stronger, for a P5 to become a P8 and a P8 to become a P12. That's impossible though."

"What about Lyta?" Sheridan interrupted.

"Lyta Alexander is the only exception to that rule," Wolff agreed. "But her power was not natural. If the Vorlons, the beings who _created_ sentient telepaths, hadn't enhanced her then she would have remained a P5 until her death. With the Vorlons gone and Ms. Alexander missing, Psi Corps had lost their chance to learn how to enhance telepaths. Losing that opportunity has made them… somewhat cranky."

"And Silver is a way to get that opportunity back?" Sheridan asked.

"Possibly," Wolff admitted with a sigh. "They will be interested in creating a stable artificial telepath, something they have never been able to do before. Silver might give them that chance. She's a P12, just like the… donor that gave her the ability. No matter what happens with her telepathy, they will be interested."

"You think Psi Corps would do something to her?" Sheridan asked.

He realized a second after he said that of course Psi Corps would do something to Silver if it was in their interest. They would be more hesitant to do something if Silver retained her psi ability then if she lost it because she would be a fellow telepath instead of a mundane, but they would do something anyway. Therein was Wolff's concern.

Wolff gave Sheridan a grim look, guessing that he had figured out the problem.

Sheridan leaned back in his chair. "What do you want me to do?"

"Maybe nothing," Wolff said in a tone that he hoped Sheridan wouldn't have to do anything, but also aware that he probably would.

Sheridan listened as Wolff spoke. He leaned forward, resting his arms against his desk as Wolff outlined his idea to protect his friend Silver from Psi Corps. When Wolff finished, Sheridan sat there and thought it over for almost a minute straight.

"Well," Sheridan said, breaking his silence at last. "That sounds like it might just be crazy enough to work. I'll help."

Wolff smiled, relieved.

Despite having Sheridan's support, Wolff was still wary for the storm that would come. It was not a matter of _if_ for the Psi Corps, but _when_. Someone would come and retrieve Silver, and from what he had learned about Psi Corps in the past two years, he knew they weren't above dissection to try to learn the secret of enhancing telepathic talent. _Nothing_ would be above that success.

His nerves a little frayed, Wolff checked to make sure Silver was still asleep and then went to one place on Babylon he knew he would get some time to think without anyone interrupting him. It wasn't the Zen Gardens or the hydroponics, and was actually the last place anyone would think to go for peace and quiet – the docking bay.

Wolff knew it was against regulations, but he took off the Psi Corps badge and stuffed it in his jacket pocket, giving him an extra measure of freedom. He wove in and out of the crowd of dockworkers as cargo was unloaded, loaded, and ships checked in and out. The ground floor was too busy, so he went up to the catwalk near the roof and climbed onto the catwalk's railing. It was delicate, and a fall from this high would end badly for him.

He swayed a little before regaining his balance, and then jumped up and grabbed one of the structural support beams near the wall. Wolff was able to pull himself up and land on the support beam. It was just wide enough for him to lay on it like it was a tree branch. Here, he was out of the workers way and since no one ever looked up, surprisingly well hidden.

There was an almost unbearable amount of noise and action below him, and from his perch, he could observe it all. Anyone else would quickly evacuate the area, but Wolff found himself relaxing. The chaos of the docking bay was predictable. Even in lieu of everything that had happened, the pulse of life below him was unchanged. It was constant, and that steadiness was relaxing beneath the deceivingly chaotic appearance.

Several minutes lapsed by, but Wolff did not move. He just watched. It was enjoyable to watch life go on normally. Wolff looked down from the dockworkers after a few minutes when he sensed the presence of a mind that did not walk past him. When he did so, he saw one of the dockworkers standing underneath him looking up, trying to figure out what to make of him. The dockworker was female, human, blonde, and young.

"This is a restricted area to passengers," she called up to him.

"I'm out of everyone's way," Wolff retorted without moving.

"This is still restricted," she told him.

Wolff seemed to realize that she wasn't going to leave, feeling her stubbornness. He sighed and swung down from the support beam. For a moment, he dangled from the beam and then dropped onto the floor in front of her. Then Wolff faced off against the human, hands shoved into his jacket.

"I know how space docks work," Wolff told her.

"Do you now?" The woman asked.

"I worked spacedock for two years," Wolff answered, "Earth Lunar port."

She looked surprise by that, seeing as it was one of the most popular spaceports in Earth Alliance.

"You don't anymore?" She asked.

Wolff shrugged. "I'm not allowed to."

He restrained himself from scanning her thought when she looked at him curiously. The last person he had done that to ended up being a Psi Cop working undercover, and that had put him in Psi Corps. He would have to either figure out what she was thinking using her body language or have her tell him herself.

"I'm Naomi Connally," she introduced herself.

"Leon Wolff," Wolff said, feeling the Psi Corps badge in his pocket. "Hey, weren't you involved with that dock strike a while ago?"

Connally smiled and nodded agreement. "I take it you're not a dockrat now? What are you?"

"Just looking for some peace and quiet," Wolff sidestepped.

Connally raised an eyebrow and looked around at the environment. "You picked a heck of a place."

"No I didn't," Wolff promised her. "The docks are the lifeblood of any community. No matter what's going on with the rest of the area, you still have cargo to move. It's only when the docks go silent that I start to panic."

The two of them had to raise their voices to speak despite being close to each other, there was such clamor of activity.

"Fair enough," Connally admitted, "but even former dockrats are still civilians now and civilians aren't allowed in this area."

"I'm out of the way," Wolff promised.

Connally smiled at his innocent persistence and shook her head in a good-natured way.

Wolff heaved a huge sigh. "All right, all right. I'll go. If only so you don't get in trouble."

"Thank you," Connally said.

Wolff tipped his head towards her and then moved away through the other workers. He walked without bumping into or disturbing any of them. The ease came from old practice, leaving Connally to think that he hadn't been lying about being a dockrat just to avoid trouble. She shook her head and went back to work.

Once Wolff left the docks, he took out his Psi Corps pin and looked at it seriously. That Connally woman had been nice enough, but he knew it was only because she hadn't seen the pin. Humans who saw that fled from him as if he was a leper, terrified he would jump into their minds and learn their dirty little secrets. As if he took pleasure from going into someone's memories and losing all focus of his self and ending up with nightmares for weeks as he tried to sort out himself from the other person. Yeah, he loved to go through _that_ on a regular basis.

He sighed and lowered the pin without putting it on. Rather than join the press in the Zócalo he went up a level and walked along the catwalk on the second level. Wolff stopped there and leaned against the railing, looking down over the crowd. Many were human, but many were not.

Thinking about all the different species inevitably meant he thought about Harmony, a person both human and alien. He kept his brand of difference on a pin he could take off. Harmony's difference was her appearance and it could not be removed so easily. She didn't try to hide her difference though as Wolff did, instead taking pride in what made her inhuman because it was a part of who she was. The crowd's reaction did not intimidate her.

Wolff envied her bravery.

He was not Harmony though, so once people passing through on the upper walkway saw the pin and began putting the effort into walking _around_ him, he stood straight. Then, he silently turned and left the Zócalo. The other humans stepped away from him as he neared, allowing him to walk unhindered and uninterrupted.

* * *

 **If you're going to advise me that Wolff's exaggerating things with telepaths you're mistaken. If you think I'm going to spoil things and tell you Wolff and Sheridan's plan you're also mistaken.**

 **Yes, those men are trying to rape River but things might not go as they plan.**


	12. Family Feuds Are Always the Bloodiest

"Huh?" Verdi Ellas asked as he spoke into his handmike, "what do you mean you're staying in your quarters? I need you to help get ready for my match against that Drazi Shukar tonight."

"You don't right now," Leon Wolff said in a sleepy tone. "I've been working with Silver. I think her telepathy's starting to fade so I'm working to wear it out. Do you have any idea how tiresome it is to practice for hours on end building up a mind block and tearing down your opponent's?"

Verdi winced at the tone in Wolff's voice. He sounded tired as well as worn-out as if he was still half-asleep. It made Verdi feel a little sorry that he had contacted him.

"I'll help you get ready tonight," Wolff promised, "but it's not even noon yet."

"No but it's close," Verdi remarked sarcastically, amazed that Wolff was still sleeping.

Wolff lived up to his name, giving a growl like sound. "I'll be up by tonight, but it's not night yet, so goodnight."

There was a bip sound as Wolff turned off the handmike, leaving Verdi to stare at it. He sighed and shook his head, replacing his handmike in his waistcoat. Verdi linked his hands behind his neck and looked up at the ceiling of B5, more amused then anything by Wolff. Silver was a human and a friend of the Narn, so although he didn't like her he understood Wolff considered her a friend.

Verdi looked down at the rest of the Zócalo, and then shrugged and began to browse among the stands. He supposed to himself that he had been bothering Wolff an awful lot about the Mutari fights. Wolff had things of his own to do besides helping Verdi. Verdi himself was taking a break from the constant training to walk around the Zócalo, so how could he blame Wolff for ignoring him?

"Verdi Tono La Ellas," someone called out his full name behind him.

Verdi stopped breathing and slowly turned around, a scared look crossing his features. Standing behind him with his arms crossed over his chest was a male Centuari only a few years older than he was. Unlike Verdi, he was dressed to show off his noble status with everything from his tall haircrest to his clothing that alternated between dark blue, light blue, and a touch of white with silver threading on his jacket.

"A-Avar," Verdi stuttered as he set eyes on his older brother for the first time in almost three years. "What are _you_ doing here?"

One of Avar's eyebrows twitched at Verdi's blank tone and he took a step closer to him, smiling in a way that was the exact opposite of reassuring. Verdi took a step back.

"What am _I_ doing here?" Avar repeated, taking another step closer. " _I_ am here on official business on our House's behalf. In fact, father has just arranged for me to be Vir's new attaché."

"D-does that mean you're staying?" Verdi asked in a tone too close to shock.

Avar tilted his head and Verdi looked down, instantly cowed by his brother.

"The question is what are you doing here?" Avar corrected him. " _You_ are supposed to be home, not ignoring us as if we don't exist because you're smitten on a commoner."

"I love her," Verdi blurted out.

Avar's smile turned to a scowl and Verdi looked back down, feeling the heat rise to his face. He was sure he was turning red but his brother was _scary_.

" _Love_?" He snapped, louder than intended.

A few looks came his way so Avar rolled his eyes and grabbed Verdi's sleeve, dragging him to one of the side passegeways that led to the Zócalo.

"What does love have to do with marriage?" He hissed at Verdi. "My wife is the most airheaded, flighty thing out there and half the time I can't bear to spend more than ten minutes with her – all that giggling. I was married to her for the good of our house, and out House has profited from my action. What have you done for our house besides cause it embarrassment?"

"That's what you're for," Verdi finally spoke up, meeting his brother's unamused blue gaze. "You and Drella are here to take care of the house. I'm just the younger son. Well, I got tired of that so I'm here and I'm going to be the next Sho-Rin. That should do something to pacify the House."

House Ellas had long been a military house. Their father and his father before him had been Generals in the Centauri's navy, often coordinating directly with the Emperor. They had been brilliant tacticians, ensuring House Ellas rose above the others. As the elder son, Avar was expected to not only inherit the title House Patriarch from his father but to become a general himself. Verdi's future was not set yet, but his family had assumed he would also become a ranking officer. If any House could accept the title Sho-Rin without disappointment, it would be Ellas.

"You? Become Sho-Rin?" Avar rolled his eyes, "don't make me laugh."

Verdi simmered and snapped, "I can to."

" _You_ cannot," Avar countered.

"Can to."

Cannot."

"Can to!"

"Cannot!"

Both of them realized at the same time that they were arguing like their seven-year old twin cousins and fell silent, falling back to death glares.

"You can't beat _me_ ," Avar put a hand on his chest, "How do you expect to become Sho-Rin?"

"I'm a lot stronger then when I left home," Verdi warned Avar.

"Oh?" Avar asked with the same gentle, political smile he always reverted to. "You think you'll win this time?"

"I think I can," Verdi agreed.

At some point, the brothers had begun to slowly circle each other, arms raised in preparation for a fight. Their steps were silent, but Avar noticed that their stances no longer mirrored each other. His brother's stance no longer looked completely Centauri, having been modified and diluted by inferior alien fighting styles. Verdi still knew how this went through because both brothers extended an arm so the back of their wrists were touching. They stopped circling and stood there, each waiting for the other to make the first move.

Verdi, still ticked off, struck first.

* * *

Zack Allen was doing was rounds on the Zócalo when he was attracted to the sounds of a ruckus. When he followed them he found a cheering crowd shouting the traditional chant of "fight, fight, fight." He sighed and activated his Link.

"This is Zack," he said on the Security's channel. "I've got a fight in the Zócalo and I could use some help breaking it up."

He got some conformations and then turned his Link off and began to push his way through the crowd, shouting at them to break it up. The crowd began to step aside to let him access when they realized who he was and Zack was able to get to the front to see the fighters. They were two Centauri and he recognized one was Verdi Ellas. That explained the crowd.

"Alright," Zack told them, intending to save Verdi's opponent, "break it up you two."

They predictably didn't stop. He took a step closer, intending to break them up himself. That didn't get very far. When Zack grabbed the jacket of Verdi's opponent he delivered a vicious palm strike to Zack's face even as Verdi kicked him in the chest and sent him stumbling back. Someone in the crowd caught him before he hit the deck plating, leaving Zack to reel from the blow.

He touched his face, discovering his nose was bleeding. The Centauri were still fighting each other as if Zack didn't exist. Some of their blows were connecting with each other, but the Centauri's style was agility and countering an opponent, so most missed. Even so, they were countering each too well. Zack got the feeling that these two had fought before.

"It's a pity you're training here," Avar taunted in Centauri. "The alien influence is diluting your form. You should return home and get some real training."

To prove his point, Avar landed a roundhouse kick on the side of his brother's face, making Verdi stumble sideways and fall into the crowd. They grabbed him and pushed him back into the makeshift rink. Verdi twisted to avoid a jump kick, sliding inside Avar's guard and throwing his weight against a hook punch to the side of Avar's face, mirroring a human move.

"Maybe that alien influence makes my form stronger," he challenged.

Avar seriously doubted that, waiting for an opening he knew would come. Verdi slid into a Centauri stance, shifting his weight to his right leg in the front. There! He struck, hitting the side of Verdi's leg. Almost instantly Verdi's leg buckled and he dropped to one knee, unable to correct for the movement.

Avar kicked him, knocking Verdi's head back and throwing him onto his back. Not again, Verdi thought. The last time he had seen Avar had been three years ago, right before Verdi had left House Ellas. They had fought then and Avar had beaten him then using the exact same move.

More than a little irritated, Zack straightened and stalked over to them. Verdi had been expecting Avar to use that move though, so he was able to retaliate when Avar got too close. His foot flashed out and he hit Avar on the instep, right on his ankle. Something in Avar's leg snapped and it was his turn to drop to the ground. Mirroring one of Wolff's moves, Verdi kicked his leg into the air and flipped over, doing a handstand briefly as he smoothly stood from the fall.

"I'm a little stronger then I used to be," Verdi promised Avar.

Zack interposed himself between the brothers as Avar struggled back to his feet, favoring his left leg Verdi had hit.

"Alright already!" He shouted, putting his arms out to keep them apart and almost getting kicked in the face as Verdi tried to move in and finish off his opponent. "The fight's _over_ and you're both in trouble."

Outside the ring of humans and aliens, two other security officers had finally arrived and quickly began breaking up the crowd. Like cockroaches exposed to light, all the people that had been standing back watching the Centauri go after each other dissipated with astonishing speed. The extra security guards helped Zack keep the Centauri restrained, but he had a feeling they could take down all of the guards present if they wanted to.

"I am not going back to Centauri Prime, Avar!" Verdi shouted at his brother, yanking himself free from the guard holding him. "I'm going to be the next Sho-Rin of B5 and then I'll beat all the other Sho-Rins to and become the best. Either way, I'm not going anywhere. Now," he addressed the guards, "if you excuse me, I have a Mutai match tonight to prepare for."

He turned and stalked away from everyone, heading back to his quarters. Of all the times for his brother to reappear, Avar _had_ to pick now. Zack raised a hand to stop the guards, letting Verdi go. Verdi would just brain the guards if they got in his way like he had done last time. It was from _that_ incident Zack had been introduced to the Centauri.

Zack turned to face the remaining Centauri, but he was staring after Verdi with a flat look veiled to hide his anger. "How okay are you?"

"Fine enough," the Centauri dismissed. "It's just that last hit that hurt."

He knelt and ran his fingers over his left instep, checking for damage. He grit his teeth against the pain while making his muscles remain relaxed as if he was in no pain. It did appear broken.

"Where is your nearest medical ward?" He asked, pushing the pain to the back of his mind while keeping his voice smooth. "I believe he broke the bone."

Zack almost asked why the Centauri wasn't showing any pain if that was the case when he recognized him. "Hey wait a minute, aren't you Vir's new attaché? What are you doing brawling?"

The Centauri sighed. "My name is Avar Ellas. Verdi is my younger brother. This is hardly the first time we've fought although I far prefer my Coutari over this… _brawling_ like commoners."

He sneered when he said the word brawling and looked pointedly at Zack. "Where is the nearest medical ward? I've only been here two days and don't know my way around yet."

Zack turned and pointed towards mebay 2, medbay 1 being offlimits as that was where Harmony Silver was. Avar looked in the direction Zack had pointed and then nodded thanks. Without another word he turned and walked towards it, barely limping despite the broken bone and showing no sign of pain.

"I take it no one's going to press charges?" One of the other security guards asked dryly.

Zack gave a short laugh in agreement and said, "No, I don't think so."

So, Avar thought to himself as he walked away, Verdi was going to stay and become Sho-Rin. If Verdi lost and failed to become the Sho-Rin then he would have no reason to stay. All Avar had to do then was make sure his little brother lost.

* * *

Domar and Zubar of the Drazi Freehold sat across from each other in Domar's quarters. Lying on the table between them was a small plastic vial filled with white powder called Stacrite. The drug would dissolve almost instantly in water and to access it they simply had to snap the vial in half and pour it in. A few sips of it and the drinker would start to lose motor control and brain recognition, making it easy to beat them in a fight.

Domar and Zubar were standing Ka-Tow for Shukar, a Drazi Mutai fighter. Tonight, Shukar was fighting Verdi Ellas, a Centari, for the title Sho-Rin. If he won this match then he would be very close to it, but if he lost he would be disqualified.

"Are you sure we have to drug Ellas?" Zubar asked Domar seriously. "We could get Shukar disqualified."

"Shukar doesn't know what we're doing," Domar defended his choice to get the drug. "He can't get in trouble even if we're caught and we have to make sure he wins. Do you really want a Centauri to be the new Sho-Rin? They aren't even allowed in the Interstellar Alliance."

Zubar thought about it and nodded in reluctant agreement.

"Then all we have to do is drug Ellas before the fight," Domar smiled and picked up the vial. "Shukar will win for sure."

The door chimed suddenly, indicating they had a visitor. The two Drazi looked at each other but Domar shook his head, indicating that he wasn't expecting a visitor. Domar hid the Stacrite in his shirt and warily called out for entry. Both of the Drazi stood when a Centauri walked through the door but Domar hesitated when he saw the Centauri was limping, favoring his left leg.

"You two," the Centauri addressed them, "you're standing Ka-Tow for the Drazi fighter tonight, right?"

"What if we are?" Domar asked, unsure if the Centauri knew about the drug.

"I have a tip for you to pass on to the fighter," the Centauri explained. "I know an easy way to take down the Centauri named Verdi Ellas."

"W-what?" Zubar stuttered. "Take him down? You do?"

"Yes," the Centauri promised as the door closed behind him. "When Verdi Ellas was a child his right shinbone was broken in two places. If you can hit his leg when he goes into this stance." The Centuari mirrored a stance with his right foot in the front, shifting his weight to it. "Ellas will fall."

"The way he does that stance looks sound," Domar disagreed, having seen Ellas do that move. "He's never faltered."

"I know it does," the Centauri agreed, "but it's not. Didn't you see his fight in the Zócalo an hour ago? I brought him instantly to his knees when I did this."

"Wait a minute," Zubar interrupted them. "Aren't you Avar Ellas?"

"What of it?" Avar asked them.

"You're Verdi Ellas's brother," Domar crossed his arms over his chest. "Why would you betray him by telling us his weakness?"

Avar smiled gently, a political smile. "It's simple really. If Verdi loses, he will be dropped from the running of Sho-Rin and will have one less reason to stay on Babylon 5. It will make it much easier for me to get him to return to Centauri Prime. I need to make sure he loses."

Domar nodded thoughtfully. Shukar could use this in his match against Ellas, a finishing blow to end it after the Starcrite began to take effect.

"I always knew you Centauri were a backstabbing race," Domar mused at Avar, "but sabotaging your brother? That's low."

Avar's emotionless face didn't respond to Domar's gibe as he said smoothly, "just make sure Verdi loses. Then we'll all be happy."

"Yes," Domar agreed with a smile, "we all will."

* * *

 **Now you know where Verdi gets his attitude from. Treason is a sticky thing under any circumstances, but between brothers? Cheating and sabotage are also bad so I bet everyone's hoping this stays in the dark. Wonder what happens if the truth of what is about to occur comes to light.**


	13. Psycho Chick

River glanced left and right as she walked around Brown Sector, getting a feel for Babylon 5, her new home. This part of Brown Sector was close to Downbelow, so there were "lurkers" present as well as a great deal of junk and trash. Although she wasn't sure, she thought the lurkers were homeless, whatever that was. This wasn't the neatest part of the station, but she could feel it was closer to the computer mainframe, which was where she wanted to be. It was also less regulated by security, giving her more freedom.

She stopped walking abruptly with a sigh, crossing her arms over her chest. "Stop sulking and come out, whoever you are."

There was movement and then three human men came out from behind her.

"Why have you been following me?" She asked as she turned to face them.

They laughed as if she'd said something hilarious and began to encircle her.

"You're pretty," One of them said. "It's too bad you're wearing so much clothing. I wonder what you look like under all that."

His eyes coasted over her body from head to toe, a strange look in his eyes. River looked at him blankly, not understanding what was going on. One of them reached forward and grabbed her wrist. She looked surprised by his action and easily pulled her arm free from his grip.

The man stumbled forward, caught off guard by the motion. River casually crossed her arms over her chest a second time and tilted her head over to one side, still confused. With a curse, the man that had grabbed her wrist did so again. Glaring, River went to free herself again and one of his hands tore the front of her shirt.

"Hey!" She complained. "Let me go!"

"Yeah right," he laughed as the other men approached River. "Let's see what the rest of you looks like without all that annoying clothing."

Laughter echoed around Babylon 5. Then the screaming began.

 **...**

Pierce ran towards the sounds of screams that echoed across Brown Sector as lurkers dived for cover and hurried out of her way. She stopped and stared in surprise at the sight that greeted her when she finally arrived at the source. There were three men lying on the ground. One person was standing in the middle of their prone forms, and Pierce was stunned to see it was a teenager dressed in black. The teenager had been looking at the bodies, but now raised her eyes.

"Hello," she greeted Pierce. "I take it their screams brought you here?"

"They did," Pierce agreed, approaching the girl cautiously. "Who are you?"

"My name is River," she introduced herself as she casually clasped her hands behind her back. "I recently arrived on the station."

"River," Pierce echoed. "Why did you attack these men?"

"They attacked me," River said simply, unclasping her hands and motioning at the tear in the collar of her shirt. "They tried to take my clothes off."

She ran her fingers along the tear in her shirt and when she removed her hand, the torn cloth had been mended as if it had never been damaged. That slight movement made Pierce very wary as she knelt by the nearest body.

"They're not dead," River told her.

Pierce confirmed that and glanced up at her, standing slowly. "I hope you'll excuse my surprise. Normally, when three men go after a woman, she's the victim, not the other way around."

"You think three mere humans could harm me?" River asked.

She spoke in a flat, emotionless voice without any inflection on her words. Her facial expressions didn't change as she spoke either. Pierce looked her over quickly, a little more wary. Other than the now mended tear of her shirt, she was completely uninjured without a blemish on her clothing. It was as if she hadn't even been in a fight.

"You look human," Pierce pointed out.

River smiled, finally showing emotion, a smug, satisfied smile. "My genome is human but I am not loyal to Earth Alliance. I assume you have heard of the Techno-Mages?"

"Yes," Pierce agreed, "are you…"

"I am one of them," River agreed. "So believe me when I tell you these men were no threat."

Just for a moment, Pierce thought she saw a crackle of electricity, almost like lightning, flash across the surface of River's eyes. Pierce idly remembered hearing stories of the "magic" techno-mages used.

"I had heard all of your kin had left known space before the start of the Second Shadow War," Pierce probed.

"Most of us still are beyond known space," River tipped her head in agreement, "but a few are returning to our old places of power. Unlike humans, we are a usually solitary people. Although we occasionally gather in groups, living in large numbers tends to be a bit… trying for us. I am not the only one that has found it too trying."

With that, River turned and began to walk away from the crime scene.

"Hey wait a minute," Pierce called out to her. "I'll need to get a statement."

"I already told you what happened," River countered, glancing over her shoulder at Pierce. "These men are not dead. When they awaken, I suggest you inform them that I will not hold back my abilities again. Should they or anyone else attack me, I will defend myself. Do you know how difficult it is to attack and defeat someone without killing them? I used great effort to take them down alive this time. I will not do so a second time."

"Is that a threat?" Pierce asked darkly.

"Only to those that intend me harm," River vowed. "I have no feud with innocents."

With that, she turned on her heel and walked away. Pierce tried to speak or go after her but she found that she was paralyzed, unable to move or speak. Her limbs had simply locked. It wasn't until River walked around a corner and vanished from sight that Pierce was able to unlock her muscles and look down. She inhaled sharply, breathing rapidly for a second until it and her heartbeat slowed down.

She gave River a frazzled look, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Pierce assumed she had been paralyzed by a spell, which, barring other explanations, backed up her claim of being a techno-mage.

Pierce went over some of the new crazy things going on in the station in her head. Harmony Silver's artificial telepathy was starting to fade, the Dilgar girl and ship that had been recovered still hadn't been touched as they feared another virus, political attaché Avar Ellas had been brawling with his brother and Sho-Rin hopeful Verdi in the Zócalo, and now a very short-tempered techno-mage had decided to make the station her home. She idly remembered that she could have stayed on Earth and taken the promotion instead of switching to security on B5. Were things always like this?

Pierce tapped her Link on and spoke into it. "This is Pierce. I've got a triple assault on… Brown 8 near Downbelow. I need a medical team and extra security."

"This is Zack," Zack answered. "Why do you need the security?"

"They were in the process of trying to rape someone," Pierce wasn't sure how to explain this. "The victim to be turned the tables on them."

"Heh," Zack smirked, "not bad. I'll send you the men."

Pierce shut off her link after Zack did and then went around and checked the other two men to make sure they were alive. River had been telling the truth when she said their injuries were not life threatening although Pierce suspected it would be some time before they regained consciousness. Strangely, she didn't see any bruises, cuts, or other obvious injuries on the men.

There were the sound of not so subtle footsteps approaching at a rapid clip and Pierce paused her investigation of the men. It was likely too soon for reinforcements. As the footsteps came closer, she withdrew from the bodies and knelt behind some crates. The men that appeared were not security.

There were cries and one of them ran over to the unconscious men. Friends of theirs, Pierce guessed and slowly unholstered her PPG when two of the six men drew PPGs from inside their jackets. She turned off her Link so its chime couldn't give her away and listened.

"It's Raymond and the others alright," one of them announced. "They're still alive."

"Who did this?" one of the gaggle with a PPG asked. "Who could take down all _three_ of them?"

"I don't know," the first one said darkly. "Spread out. Their attacker might be nearby. Maybe we can flush them out and teach them how dangerous it is to mess with Aiden."

Pierce looked up at the ceiling of the corridor as the men spread out, thinking that _someone_ was enjoying themselves far too much. Aiden was the current kingpin of the criminal underworld on B5 and ran everything from drugs, alcohol, and prostitutes to a protection racket. Three bodies had recently turned up in Downbelow, and all of them had been paying Aiden for "protection." The theory was that they had missed their payments and been made examples of, but there was no proof and no one willing to testify. These men seemed to be some of Aiden's.

Pierce didn't like six on one odds and stayed quiet, seeing if they would pass her by. The Chief had said there were reinforcements on the way, so she just had to stall. Her plan quickly went awry as one of the armed men came dangerously close to her position. It seemed she would have to fight after all.

She waited for the man to get closer before she attacked him. Standard operating procedures dictated she announce her presence and give them a chance to surrender, but Pierce just didn't see the logic in revealing her location. Given that he would likely just shoot her, she figure she could live with herself as she curled her hand around the PPG.

Pierce stood silently after he had walked past her and tapped his shoulder. He turned in her direction, his PPG swinging over to her. She punched him before he could get the weapon up. Her hand was wrapped around her PPG, turning the weapon into a makeshift set of brass knuckles to add a little extra weight to her blow. It worked well, and her target spun half- around as her punch solidly connected with the side of his cheek, unconscious before he hit the ground.

The sound of him hitting the deckplating echoed and the other five men all whipped around to face her. Pierce flicked her hand, spinning the PPG in her palm so she was holding it by the grip with her finger on the trigger. She raised the weapon.

"Station security," she told them, "drop your weapons and surrender."

The other men paused for a moment and then the other one with a PPG opened fire. Pierce, not the least bit surprised, ducked back behind the haphazardly piled crates. She heard the shots echo as they hit the metal she took shelter behind, rolling her eyes. Of course they were going to open fire on her. As if _anyone_ actually surrendered when security ordered them to.

"Oh shit," one of them shouted. "It's that psycho chick!"

One of Pierce's eyebrows twitched when she heard them shout that.

"Psycho chick," she repeated slowly, her aura darkening. "You're really calling me a psycho chick? _I am not a psycho chick_!"

She shouted the last sentence and stood to face the men. The one with the PPG opened fire on her, but Pierce coolly leaned to one side, letting the shot skim past her ear as she returned fire. Her shot hit him in the chest and threw him backwards, the PPG landing amid a pile of trash. The other four men still standing looked at each other and then at Pierce as she started walking towards them, terrified.

Pierce shoved her PPG in the holster as her other opponents weren't armed and it wouldn't be fair to just shoot them. Her opponents looked freaked out and one of them made the mistake of trying to hit her. She stepped to one side and grabbed his wrist once he had overextended himself with the punch.

With one hand trapped, she slammed her elbow into his throat, crushing his windpipe and sending him coughing for air. She yanked him down and kneed him in the chest before shoving him away. There was a solid _clang_ as his face hit a metal support beam and he dropped to the ground.

The leader of the three remaining men motioned the other two to engage her and they did so. One with a metal pipe tried to hit her across the face. She sidestepped him, grabbed his wrist, and then slammed her boot down on the back of his knee. He fell to his knees and Pierce hit the back of his head with a two-fisted blow. It made him drop to his hands and knees.

She used the man on his hands and knees in front of her as a springboard to take care of her other opponent. Putting her hands on his back, she flipped over. Her feet came down on the top of his head and knocked him down. When she finished the flip and got her feet on the ground, she instantly brought a foot up and kicked him under the chin. He stumbled back and Pierce grabbed the front of his shirt to keep him from falling over backwards. Then she punched him and let him fall.

Behind her, the man on his hands and knees stood and she hopped backwards, slamming her elbow across his face. She swatted aside a punch and hit him underneath the ribs, kicking his legs out from under him when he didn't stop. A kick across the face ensured he would stay down.

The final member of Aiden's gang, the one that had called her a psycho chick, was backed up against the wall. Pierce looked up at him, a somewhat sadistic smile flashing across her face. All the color drained from _his_ face and he gulped. Then he turned to flee.

Pierce swooped down and grabbed the pipe that had been used against her and threw it at him. It spun through the air and hit him in the back of the head. He stumbled and fell, and the delay was enough for Pierce to catch up to him.

He turned onto his back, fear bright in his eyes as he faced her. Pierce leaned forward and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, dragging him to her. The man grabbed a knife hidden in his belt and slashed at her. She dropped him, giving him a chance to scramble to his feet, holding the knife towards her.

Pierce shifted her stance and then kicked his hand, knocking the knife away without a moment's hesitation. His gaze followed the gleam of light that reflected off the knife's blade. Without any trouble, Pierce jumped and spun, kicking him across the side of his face with a great deal of force. He stumbled backwards and landed on his ass. She stalked forward as he slid backwards and put a boot on his throat, leaning in close to him.

"I am not a psycho chick," Pierce hissed at him, "got it?"

He nodded frantically and that smile came back on Pierce's face. Pierce's smile grew and then she punched him, slamming his head against the deck plating and rendering him harmless. Her smile became a self-satisfied smirk, the dim lighting reflecting across her eyes. A lock of her hair had kept free of her ponytail and she tucked it behind one ear with a haughty huff.

"Psycho chick indeed," she muttered darkly.

She suddenly turned and whipped her PPG out of the holster, finger on the trigger. Standing directly in the pistol's sight was River, and the young techno-mage tilted her head to one side. Pierce slowly lowered the PPG when River made no move to attack her and holstered it in a practiced movement.

"How long have you been standing there?" Pierce asked her.

"Long enough," River responded. "I was always taught that techno-mages are superior to their parent species as only we can use technomancy. You are a competent fighter though, even without spells. What is your name human?"

Pierce hesitated only a moment before responding, "Cassidy Pierce. I'm the Sergeant of security here on B5, Chief Allen's second in command if you will."

River nodded thoughtfully. Then she turned and walked away again. Pierce wasn't frozen this time, but chose not to go after her. She had a feeling something very important had happened, but whatever it was it eluded her. With a shake of her head, Pierce did quick rounds of the men she had taken down to see how many of them were still alive.

"Well," Pierce said as she looked up from the body of the man she had shot. "You lot finally show up. You're late."

Standing in the entrance were three security officers and they surveyed the carnage with stunned looks.

"One person did all this?" One of them asked.

"No," Pierce corrected. "Their vic-to-be took out three of them. The rest showed up after the fact and I had to deal with them because you were late."

"Sorry Sergeant," another said shyly. "We'll do clean up."

Pierce nodded briskly and the security officers skirted her as they walked around her to begin to zip-tie the surviving purps. It was obvious their sergeant was in a bad mood and they did _not_ want to do anything that might earn her ire. Her ill-begotten title of "Psycho Chick" was not exaggerated.

* * *

 **I notice that the first part was all about Harmony Silver and now she's not really showing up. Well, she will before long and there's more then one character in the story. I didn't want to focus on only one character when I have other's that you haven't really gotten a chance to meet. Here are two more of my characters for you.**


	14. Muta-Do

Leon Wolff, wearing the vested uniform of a Ka-Tow, helped Tano Maree get into his. Tano's twin sister Trisa was sitting near Verdi, looking at his wounds with a critical eye. The friends were currently in Verdi's quarters as they got ready for the Mutari match due to start in an hour.

"Honestly," Trisa chided Verdi. "I can't believe you got into a fight just before your match. You're going to be facing Shukar and you're already injured."

Leon and Tano exchanged smiles at Trisa's impatient tone.

"I didn't exactly expect Avar to show up," Verdi defended in a plaintive voice. "Father didn't warn me he had been assigned to B5."

"You've been mostly ignoring your family for the past three years," Trisa reminded him. "Did you expect him to ring you up now?"

Verdi gave Leon and Tano a pleading look for help, but they ignored it.

"I'll be fine," Verdi promised Trisa as he stood, adjusting his blue gi.

He irrationally thought about when Avar had swept Verdi's leg out from under him and instantly put him on his back. Normally Verdi managed to fight without revealing the injury to his leg, but Avar knew about it. If a friend of Shukar's had been watching they could tip Shukar off to his weakness.

His leg being broken was an accident, a result of a Narn hate crime against the Centauri. Verdi and Avar had been in the wrong place at the wrong time when the bomb went off and the building collapsed. He remembered how the other Centauri nobles feared he would never be able to walk right again, but Avar had threatened them into silence. With Avar's help, Verdi had relearned to walk and could now do so without a limp. It was only when he put his weight on it in preparation for a jump spin kick that his leg became a problem.

"You three might as well head to the arena," he told his friends, "I need to check in with the Muta-Do before the match."

Trisa hesitated, her hazel eyes dark. After a long second, she stood and nodded. Verdi did not look up as the dark-haired Centauri left with her brother and friend. He took a few deep breaths to help calm himself. Avar revealing his weakness had unsettled him more then he thought it would. Once he had calmed himself, he took his red sash off the back of a chair and walked out of his quarters to head to his fight with Shukar.

* * *

Domar watched as Verdi Ellas went through a form dance, repeating a series of moves. It was a set he had done several times before as a warm up, nothing new. Ellas shifted his weight onto his front leg and did a jump spin kick, landing smoothly. Despite Avar's assurances, there was no sign the leg had been crippled. One of Domar's friends had concurred with Avar's story though, having witnessed the brothers' fight in the Zócalo.

Wolff was sitting to one side, speaking with a Brakiri Mutari. No one was paying attention, so Domar nodded to Zubar and he drifted over to one side where Ellas had left a bottle of water. Zubar slipped a thin plastic tube from his sleeve and broke it in half with a snap, pouring the white powder into the narrow neck of Ellas's bottle. It went perfectly and he slid the two halves of the container back into his sleeve as he walked away.

Domar felt a streak of triumph when no one sounded an alarm. He smothered the strong emotion quickly, eyes darting over to where Wolff was chatting. Wolff didn't seem to have noticed anything. Indeed, he didn't seem to be paying much attention and why should he? It was illegal for Mutai matches or the contestants to be tampered with in any manner before or during the fight. Each warrior was to meet their opponent with their own strengths and weaknesses, and that, nothing else, would determine the outcome of the fight. Honor was supposed to be more important than victory, but Domar didn't think Shukar would mind given the nature of his opponent.

Wolff had been the biggest threat to Zubar's drugging, but he was only a P5. He was also human, and that meant he was trained to block first and scan second to adhere to Earth Alliance regulations. Unless it was very strong emotion right next to him or he was deliberately scanning a person, there wasn't a thing he could sense. A human P5 was only as strong a non-human P3, so badly were they restrained by Earth Alliance law and human paranoia.

Domar's smirk fell off his face when the Muta-Do walked into the arena and raised his hands. Silence fell almost instantly.

"Let all brothers of the Mutai enter the arena for tonight's trial," the Muta-Do announced. "All who wish to view the trial should head to the arena. Ka-Tow's, to your places."

Zubar approached Domar while Wolff respectfully said goodbye to the Brakiri. Shukar and Ellas weren't going to be the first fighters of the night, so they had a little time. Other Ka-Tow's left with their Mutari. The people present stepped aside and allowed the Muta-Do to walk unhindered. Those that were in the first round followed behind him.

"You going to watch?" Wolff asked Ellas as the Drazi left with the others.

"No," Ellas decided. "Tano and Trisa are at the arena. They'll tell me who wins. If I watch the fights before mine I'm just going to get nervous and lose my focus. Waiting does that."

Wolff nodded that he understood and walked over to swipe Ellas's water, unaware it had been drugged. "Want some?"

"No actually," Ellas decided. "Centauri don't get dehydrated as easily as humans. I think it's because we have two hearts."

"Mind if I take a sip then?" Wolff asked, holding up the water.

Ellas motioned for him to do so as he went back to doing his forms, possessing too much nervous energy to sit still. Wolff took a long sip of the drugged water and then lowered the bottle, swallowing. He crossed his arms over his chest, watching Verdi idly as he took another sip of the water.

* * *

Tano winced as the Onteen was knocked to the ground by his Minbari opponent. The crowd alternatively cheered and booed, depending on who they supported. As per the Mutai rules, the Minbari stopped and waited for the Onteen to resume a fighting stance before continuing his attack.

There weren't too many Warrior Caste Minbari that joined the Mutai, so this one was trying their best to make a mark. His Onteen opponent was trying to succeed Gyor and keep the Sho-Rin title to his race. It was a fierce fight and the winner would be Verdi's next opponent, assuming Verdi won his match against Shukar. Tano saw no reason why he wouldn't.

The Mutai arena was a large square raised about two feet off the ground surrounded by metal barriers in the place of ropes. The Muta-Do observed the match on a raised dais on one of the sides, equidistant from the two corners. Most Mutari stood on either side their leader.

Various beings who had bought ducts to the match crowded the three remaining sides. Tano watched the fight amid a group of his Centauri friends, including Trisa. Since Trisa was a woman, she wasn't a fighter and didn't enjoy the sport as much as others did, but watched it because her boyfriend competed. She was rooting for the Minbari right now, but one of her female friends she often chatted with was supporting the Onteen.

"Who's winning?" Someone asked Tano in the Centauri's language.

Tano glanced over and saw Wolff. "The Minbari at the moment, much to Trisa's enjoyment."

Trisa made a face at her twin when he said that but gasped when the Onteen landed a few solid hits on the Minbari's chest and made him stagger backwards. Her friend that was rooting for the Onteen grinned and one of the other Centauri let out a cheer.

"Good, good," Wolff responded in a distracted voice, looking at the arena with a detached expression.

Tano thought it wasn't like his human friend to be detached when there was a fight going on. Wolff winced as the shouting grew in pitch and the Minbari took back the upper hand, putting a hand to his head and ducking his eyes to the floor.

"Are you okay?" Tano asked, now a little concerned.

"Yeah, yeah," Wolff dismissed. "I've just got a little headache. It's nothing too bad."

Tano watched, not sure if he believed him. Wolff managed a wan smile but that only served to make Tano more wary. He looked exhausted.

"How much time have you been working with Silver?" He tried a different tact. "You look like you need some rest."

"Maybe too much," Wolff admitted, "but her telepathy should be to low enough levels for her to leave tomorrow or the day after. And I am not tired. I slept this morning. I just have a headache. I think it's the crowd. There are so many strong emotions here with everyone baying for blood that it puts a strain on my block."

An unnatural silence fell and Wolff tightened his fingers on his hair as he visibly cringed from the influx of emotion. The Minbari had knocked the Onteen down again and this time, he wasn't getting up. The silence was due to the Muta-Do. He walked into the arena and everyone held their breath, waiting for him to confirm the Minbari's

After a moment, the Muta-Do anointed the Minbari with his scepter and the crowd exploded in cheers. Tano sighed, wishing the Onteen had somehow won. He was the lesser skilled of the two and it would have been easier for Verdi to defeat him.

Wolff gasped, feeling the blood-drenched emotions and thoughts of those watching the Mutai bleeding into his mind, tainting his thoughts red.

 _Old King Cole was a merry old soul_ , Wolff thought, reciting a rhyme, _and a merry old soul was he. He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl, and he called for his fiddlers three._

Wolff recited the rest of the rhyme in his mind. When he finished one line, he began the poem again. There were twelve lines of the poem and he recited all twelve lines at once at twelve different intervals without missing a word.

It wasn't easy to do and forced him to focus on the song instead of outside thoughts. Some teeps ran mathematical equations in their head to create and reinforce their blocks, but Wolff always found the rhyme his mother used to tell him easier. He knew he'd get hung up on the math and distract himself from distracting himself.

"Better," Wolff murmured as the red-tainted thoughts were swept from his mind and kept at bay.

By the time Wolff's thoughts were his own again Verdi and Shukar were bowing to each other in the ring. They jerked into their respective fighting stances and the crowd began to cheer. Wolff couldn't understand why his block began to tremble again. He'd seen Mutari matches and been exposed to the bloodthirsty audience plenty of times. Why should this time be any different?

Shukar and Verdi traded blows back and forth, some connecting, others missing. Wolff found his gaze straying from the ring again and he brushed his bangs away from his face, trying to focus. Sweat beaded on the back of his neck and he felt incredibly hot. Was it the crowd pushing and jostling as they pumped their fists or waved their hands? Were there too many people present for the small room?

He reminded himself to focus as he began using the rhyme to reinforce his block, looking over the crowd to try to scan them for sabotage. It didn't work, which didn't surprise him. The pain in his temples increased and he stopped trying to scan, focusing on the block. His throat felt dry and rough and the sounds of the crowd began to blur together in one bloodyhungry note. What was going on?

Domar and Zubar looked at each other, baffled as the Centauri Ellas knocked Shukar to the ground of the arena. He was doing well – too well. The stacrite should have started to distort his sense of reality. The symptoms would present themselves as exhaustion, and the crowd would simply assume Ellas had overtaxed himself. Why wasn't it working?

Domar grabbed Zubar's sleeve with a hiss, pointing to another part of the room. It took Zubar a second to understand what he was looking for. Then he saw the telepath Wolff double over, nearly falling to the ground with his hands to the side of his face. Ellas's other Ka-Two grabbed Wolff as the human dropped to his knees. A stir spread among the area like a ripple as people craned their necks to see what was going on.

Zubar and Domar looked at Ellas, who continued to fight unhindered, to the human telepath. They were thinking the same thing.

"That drug's meant to disrupt a Centauri's fighting ability," Zubar demanded. "What's it going to do if a human drinks it? And a telepath at that!"

Domar was baffled. The stacrite seemed to be affecting him more severely than it would have Ellas, but what kind of an effect would it have on a _telepath_? If a telepath became too exhausted, wouldn't they have trouble blocking thoughts or keeping their own telepathy from running rampant?

The Drazi looked at each other, realizing they might be in trouble.

"Leon! Leon!" Tano hissed. "What's going on?"

Wolff had dropped to his knees and had his head bowed and hands over his ears.

"Is he having trouble with his telepathy?" Trisa asked, concern fluttering over her features as she looked away from her boyfriend's match.

"Probably," Tano admitted. "I can't leave while Verdi's in the arena. Can you get him away from the crowd?"

He addressed his question to one of the male Centauri standing near his sister. His friend nodded and he and another Centauri helped pull Wolff to his feet and began to guide him from the room. Wolff couldn't even walk correctly.

"Shut up," Wolff whispered, his voice coming out similar to a whimper. "Shut up, shut up. Please, be quiet."

Someone was speaking to him in Centauri, but Wolff wasn't aware of it. He could see himself through someone else's eyes, reflected dozens of times from different angles as his telepathy skittered across the minds of the people near him. He couldn't keep his senses in his body and the noise was only getting louder. The Younger Races had a mind that worked on one conscious level and a few subconscious ones. Right now, it felt like Leon's mind was being stretched in a hundred different directions as it tried to encompass the minds of everyone else present. Their whispers threatened to drown out his own voice – his own thoughts. This was dangerous territory for a telepath.

"Shut up," Wolff repeated, louder this time.

The voices and memories didn't. Wolff shoved one of the people away from him, hearing and feeling the chatter as the Centauri crashed into some of the observers and knocked one of them to the floor.

"Shut up!" Wolff shouted, his control over his telepathy breaking.

Verdi staggered in the midst of getting ready to launch a kick and his damaged leg slid out from under him, making him drop to his stomach. Shukar stopped with a hand raised in the air in preparation to punch, his arm shaking as he put his other hand to his face. Pain, simple, raw pain, tore through their minds and senses and the crowd reacted. They gasped, they screeched, they cried out, they whimpered. Wolff clutched the sides of his head as the fear the people he was affecting multiplied and their pain clouded his senses further, creating a feedback loop.

Tano gripped one of the arena's bars and reached out for Wolff's shirt. He grabbed the edge of the Ka-Two vest Wolff wore and heaved him to his feet. Without uttering so much as a "sorry", he slammed Wolff against one of the metal pillars at the corner of the arena. Wolff's head connected solidly with the pillar and he staggered backwards, dropping to the ground. The pain ended like a switch had been turned off. Wolff had been knocked unconscious.

People looked at each other in confusion and Verdi stood. He turned towards where Wolff and Tano were, guessing what had happened. Tano knelt and checked Wolff's pulse. Verdi shifted his weight, about to leave the arena.

"Stop!" The muta-do called out.

Verdi froze, glancing back at the elderly yolu.

"The battle is not over," the muta-do warned Verdi. "If you leave, you will forfeit the match."

Verdi hesitated and glanced at Tano.

"He's stable," Tano called out to his friend, having put two fingers under the human's chin to find the pulse.

Verdi exhaled slightly and nodded, looking back again at Shukar. Shukar had waited patiently, and it was only when Verdi nodded that he was ready that he went into his fighting stance.

 _I have to finish this quickly_ , he thought to himself. _I have to check on Wolff because I'm pretty certain that mindquake was from him and he's never lost control before._

Verdi threw himself back into the fight. Tano remained kneeling by Wolff's side, frowning at his heartbeat. Despite what he'd told Verdi, Leon's heartbeat was fluctuating. It wasn't skipping beats, but some were stronger than others. He didn't doubt he needed immediate medical attention.

"Celo," he hissed at one of the Centauri who had tried to carry Leon out before. "Contact medical, have them send someone down here, now."

Celo was taken aback. "Is Leon in that much trouble?"

"He will be," Verdi warned.

Without another word Celo turned and began to weave through the crowd to find a commlink.

* * *

 **The best laid plans of mice and men... What more is there to say?**


End file.
